Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly, brother Sid, and cousin Mary. He is a mischievous boy, disinterested in school, and continually recruiting his equally-mischievous friends to join him on his adventures.After skipping school and fighting with another schoolboy, Tom's Aunt Polly orders him to whitewash the picket fence that surrounds their property. Tom would rather go and play, so when a schoolmate begins to taunt him, Tom tricks him into whitewashing the fence for him. He has soon convinced several other schoolmates to join in and gets some of their small possessions in return.Tom develops a crush on a classmate of his named Becky Thatcher, the daughter of a local judge. They sneak off together during school one day at lunchtime, and Tom convinces her that they should become "engaged". At first, Becky is thrilled, but this soon backfires on Tom when he accidentally lets it slip that he has been "engaged" before...