The book begins as Alice is sitting with her pet kitten, Kitty, who is playing with a ball of string. Alice tells Kitty a story about "Looking-Glass House," a magical world on the other side of the mirror where everything is backwards. Suddenly, Alice finds herself on the mantel piece. She walks through the mirror and she is in Looking-Glass House. She sees that she is in a room quite like her own, but slightly different. There are chessmen standing in pairs on the fireplace and Alice comes to the aid of the White Queen's daughter, Lily, but the chessmen seem to be unable to see her. She finds a poem called "Jabberwocky" which is complete nonsense and this frustrates her, and he decides to explore the rest of the house.She finds a magnificent garden and follows the path into the garden. Strangely, every time she follows the path through the garden, she ends up back at the door to the house. In her frustration, she wonders aloud about how to make her way through the garden and to her surprise, a Tiger-lily responds.The other flowers begin to speak, and a few of them are rude to Alice. She learns from the flowers the Red Queen is near and Alice goes to find her. When Alice meets the Red Queen she engages in a conversation. The Red Queen keeps correcting Alice's etiquette.Alice then notices a chess game being played and tells the Red Queen she would like to play. The Red Queen tells her she can be a White Pawn and if she makes it to the end of the game, Alice will become a queen.