Spirited Away starts off with a young girl and her family on their way to their new home. Chihiro, the young girl, complains that her first bouquet was a good bye present from a friend. Chihiro’s dad (Akio) takes a “short cut” down a very bumpy road to their new home. At the end of the road the car is forced to a stop when they arrive at an entrance to a abandoned theme park. They get out of the car and Chihiro says the wind is pulling them in and refuses to go in because it gives her the creeps. She then sees her mom (Yuuko) and dad go on without her so she runs after them.

Chihiro hides behind a building and the boy from earlier appears offering her food that will prevent her from disappearing. The boy looks up and sees a bird that he shields her from. She then complains she can’t get up so he casts a spell fixing her legs. They dash off together towards the bath house. The boy says Chihiro has to hold her breath as they cross the bridge so no one will see her. We learn at this point that the boy’s name is Haku.

Chihiro arrives at the top floor which is decorated very nicely. She tries to open a door and a face on the door asks her if she is even going to knock. The doors open and Yu-Baaba pulls Chihiro into her office with a wave of her hand. Chihiro then turns to Yu-Baaba who is a giant old lady and requests for a job. Yu-Baaba makes Chihiro’s mouth zip. Yu-Baaba tells her to tell her who got her that far. Chihiro says she just wants to work and Yu-Baaba gets pissed off and tells her off.

The room begins to shake and Yu-Baaba says Chihiro woke up her giant baby. Chihiro continues asking for a job. Yu-Baaba says okay just as long as she will be quiet so her baby will go back to sleep. A piece of paper and pen fly at Chihiro. Yu-Baaba says to sign her name away (literally, she’ll be given a new name and forget her real name) She of course signs, and is now an employee of Yu-Baaba. Yu-Baaba tells Chihiro her new name is Sin. Haku appears to take her to her new job. They board an elevator and Chihiro tries to talk to him. He instructs her in the proper way to speak to him now that she is employed.

Haku is showing her off to the different departments with all of them saying that they won’t take her. Haku calls Lin over and says Chihiro will work for her. Chihiro walks off with Lin. Once they’re out of sight, Lin congratulates her and shows her their departments room. Chihiro receives her work clothing and asks about Haku because of his odd behavior compared to their first meeting. Lin tells her not to trust him because he is Yu-Baaba’s henchmen. Chihiro whines and one of the workers sleeping tells her to be quiet.

On the top floor we see Yu-Baaba turning into a bird and flying away with Haku watching. It is now day time and Chihiro is wide awake shaking. Haku walks into the room and says he will take her to her parents. Haku disappears and after a few seconds Chihiro goes down to the boiler room to receive her shoes and socks which she left there the night before. Chihiro arrives at the bridge and sees a spirit floating on it watching her very closely. She ignores it and continues across to find Haku.

Haku takes her through a garden of flowers which ends at the buildings housing the pigs. She sees her parents as pigs and yells at them. Haku tells her they don’t remember being human and it is up to her to remember which pigs they are. Haku gives her original clothing. Chihiro pulls out a card from the good bye bouquet and sees her real name realizing she had almost forgotten it. Haku says how he had forgotten his real name but for some reason is able to remember hers. He then offers some food he enchanted to give Chihiro her strength back. Haku departs saying he’ll be back to see her later. Chihiro looks to the sky and sees Haku in his dragon form flying away. Chihiro goes back to the boiler room and falls asleep.

That night it begins to rain and we see Yu-Baaba returning. The lights in the main street light up and the bath house comes to life. We see Chihiro doing her first duty which is washing the floor. She, being new, is slower than the rest of the girls. A worker appears telling Lin and Chihiro that they get to operate the big tub…orders from you know who!

Chihiro pours some water outside and sees the mysterious spirit she saw on her to see her parents. She leaves the door open so that the spirit can come in.

Lin and Chihiro are made fun of forgetting the big tub. When they arrive we see that the tub is very dirty and hasn’t been cleaned in months. This tub, according to Lin, is reserved for their really dirty guests. Lin tells Chihiro to get a herbal soap token from the foremen.

Upstairs Yu-Baaba senses someone is coming. Through the main street the stands began to lock down because a giant blob is coming.

Back at the bathhouse the foremen won’t give Chihiro a token but the mysterious spirit appears and steals one for Chihiro. At the tub Lin and Chihiro use the token to get the tub filled up. Lin leaves Chihiro alone to get them both breakfast. The spirit appears again and Chihiro tells him the bath isn’t ready. The spirit offers many tokens to her but she tells him he doesn’t need them. Disappointed the spirit leaves.

Dashing down the stairs, Yu-Baaba appears saying what she sensed earlier is a stink spirit. At the bridge the workers are trying to get rid of the stink spirit because well…he stinks! Yu-Baaba says accept him and tells Chihiro to take the guest to the big tub. As the stink spirit comes in, he offers money to Chihiro who takes it and tells the spirit to follow her to the bath tub. Lin returns to see what Chihiro is involved with but is unable to approach because of the trail of sludge the spirit is leaving behind.

The stink spirit gets in the tub causing the water to over flow out. Being watched by Yu-Baaba and the other workers, Chihiro uses a token brought to her earlier to refill the tub. Yu-Baaba notes that Chihiro somehow got hold of a bunch of good bath tokens. The tub begins to refill on top of the spirit with Chihiro falling in. The stink spirit pulls her out and Chihiro notices something stuck in his side. Lin appears equipped to help. Chihiro yells out what she found and Yu-Baaba jumps down saying that isn’t a stink spirit. She throws out a rope to Chihiro which they tie to what is stuck in the spirits side.

All the workers begin pulling on the rope which pulls out a bicycle followed by a land fill’s worth of garbage. The water stops flowing to reveal the true form of the spirit. He tells them well done and disappears. Yu-Baaba looks at the water to see it is filled with gold. The spirit then reappears as something similar to Haku’s dragon form. Yu-Baaba tells Chihiro that she did a good job and tells her workers that sake (yum) is on the house for everyone tonight.

Back at their quarters Lin brings Chihiro a dumpling and the two gaze out at a train crossing the water. Lin talks of how she wishes to one day leave the bath house on that train.

Down at the big tub we see the frog looking for gold. The mysterious spirit appears and throws gold at him from the tub. The frog tells him to get out but is then given more gold. He is lured into the tub with gold only to be eaten by the spirit. The foremen appears and the spirit begins using the frog’s voice telling him to wake everyone up because he wants a bath.

In a dream Chihiro yells for her parents because she wants to feed them something the river spirit (stink spirit) gave her. She can’t find them however. When she awakes she sees that everyone is up earlier than they should be and are working furiously. Lin tells Chihiro that a new guest is loaded and giving gold away by the hand full which is causing all the commotion. Lin tries to get Chihiro to come get some gold with her but Chihiro says she would rather go look for Haku.

While on her quarter’s balcony, she sees Haku being attacked by hundreds of paper birds. She notices he is hurt and yells for him to come inside. He flies in and Chihiro shuts the balcony door causing all the paper birds to hit the door. Haku flies back out heading to Yu-Baaba’s level with a lot of difficulty.

Back inside all the workers are begging for gold from the mysterious spirit. Chihiro tries to get past them and Chihiro stops to tell the spirit thanks for the help. He offers her a lot of gold which declines. All the workers rush forward for the gold and Chihiro manages to get past them. The spirit eats two of the workers causing the rest to flee.

Chihiro goes outside and runs across a broken pole to a ladder proceeding towards Yu-Baaba’s level. On her back a paper bird is hiding. Chihiro spots Yu-Baaba returning from somewhere while on the ladder.  Chihiro reaches a window she is unable to open but the piece of paper slides in and does it for her.

She goes inside and finds herself in a giant play room that is Yu-Baaba’s baby’s room. Chihiro spies on Yu-Baaba and hears her say that Haku will be dead soon which frightens her. Yu-Baaba goes into the baby’s room and kisses her kid. She then heads down stairs to deal with the spirit eating people.

The baby discovers Chihiro and tells her she will get sick if she goes outside so she has to stay and play with him. He tells her if she leaves he’ll scream and get his mommy to kill her. Knowing he is afraid of outside things, she says she is full of germs causing the kid to cry. She runs out and finds Haku. A miniature bird version of Yu-Baaba starts to attack Chihiro but stops when the giant baby comes in.

The piece of paper appears and creates a see through Yu-Baaba appear. The paper turns the baby into a rat, the three heads into a smaller baby, and the Yu Bird into an actual bird. The paper says she is Yu-Baaba’s twin sister, Zeniiba. She tells Chihiro to hand Haku over because he stole her solid gold seal. Chihiro defends Haku and Zeniiba tells Chihiro that Haku works for Yu-Baaba so that he steal her magic secrets. She says that anyone who steals her solid gold seal will die.

Haku gets up and slices the projection of Zeniiba. Haku, Chihiro, and the transformed baby and Yu Bird fall through a hole in the floor. Chihiro remembers herself in a river briefly with Haku and then we see them appear in Kamajii’s room.

Chihiro forces open Haku’s mouth and feeds him the gift she received from the river spirit. He begins jerking around and spits out the golden seal which has a black blob on it. She smashes and kills it. Kamajii tells her to hop around so that the blob won’t hurt her. Haku then changes back to his human form. Kamajii says Haku is ill and gives him some medicine to help.

Chihiro tells Kamajii that she wants to return the golden seal to Zeniiba so that Haku will get better. She asks the black fuzz balls to get her shoes so that she can leave. Lin appears and tells Chihiro that the mysterious spirit was a monster named No-Face and that everyone is furious with her. Kamajii gives Chihiro some train tickets telling them that he has had them for forty years. He tells her that it is a one way train and Chihiro says she will walk back.

Back at the baths the workers tell Chihiro that Yu-Baaba can’t hold off No-Face much longer. They lead her to No-Face and Yu-Baaba tells Chihiro to handle it. No-Face offers Chihiro food and gold or anything in the world she wants. Chihiro tells him he needs to go home and he says he wants her. She throws the rest of the gift from the river spirit to No-Face and he begins puking. He asks her what she did to him and she runs out with him in pursuit of him.

Yu-Baaba then says she doesn’t care anymore if he’s rich and attacks No-Face with no effect. Chihiro leads No-Face outside to where Lin is waiting in a small boat. The two depart with the transformed baby and co. with No-Face following them. Chihiro says he won’t hurt them because it was the bath house that made him act the way he did. Once they reach the tracks, Lin tells Chihiro that she has to walk to the station from there. No-Face follows behind Chihiro.

Chihiro reaches the station which is just a platform in the middle of a vast sea. The train arrives and Chihiro boards with No-Face. The conductor accepts the tickets and we see the train depart.

Back at the boiler room Haku awakes and asks Kamajii where Chihiro is. Kamajii tells Haku that Chihiro left to return the seal and that true love is what helped him get better. Back up stairs Yu-Baaba is angry about all the damage caused and says it’s time for Chihiro’s parents to be eaten. Haku appears and says something precious to her has been replaced. Yu-Baaba looks over at the baby and discovers that it is really the three heads.

Yu-Baaba begins freaking out that her baby is gone. The gold given to the bath house by No-Face then turns into dirt. Yu-Baaba asks Haku where her baby is and he tells her that he is with her sister, Zeniiba. Haku tells Yu-Baaba that he will retrieve her baby if Yu-Baaba tears up Chihiro’s contract and allows her and her parents to leave. Yu-Baaba agrees on one condition, that Chihiro passes a final test.

The train arrives in a forest and Chihiro, No-Face, the baby, and Yu Bird get off. After a walk in a swamp, a hopping lamp post appears and leads them to Zeniiba’s house. The door opens and Zeniiba invites them in. Chihiro goes to give Zeniiba the seal back and Zeniiba asks her if she has any idea what it is. She notices that the protective spell is gone. Zeniiba tells Chihiro that the blob she squashed earlier was something Yu-Baaba used to control Haku. We learn that Yu-Baaba and Zeniiba don’t get along, are identical twins, complete opposites, and that Zeniiba can’t turn Chihiro’s parents back to normal.

Zeniiba tells Chihiro to focus on her memories because they will help her get everything back. No-Face and Zeniiba begin knitting.  Zeniiba then gives Chihiro a piece of string to tie her hair back that is suppose to protect her. The windows begin shaking and at the front door is Haku in his dragon form. Chihiro is happy to see him alive and well. Zeniiba says that it is time for them to go home but asks No-Face to stay with her. Chihiro tells Zeniiba good bye and tells her that her real name is Chihiro and not sin.

On Haku’s back they fly back to Yu-Baaba’s bath house. During the flight Chihiro tells him she remembers when she was little that she dropped a shoe into a river and fell in. She tells Haku that the river’s name was the Kohaku river. Haku turns back into his human form and says he remembers that he was the river spirit for that particular river. He says he can’t find his home and Chihiro says that’s because it was filled in and had apartments built in. She realizes that Haku is truly good because he rescued her the day she fell into the river.

At the bath house Lin spots Haku and Chihiro. The baby goes to his mom and turns back into herself. Haku tells Yu-Baaba not to forget her promise but Yu-Baaba says she still has to give Chihiro her final test. Yu-Baaba leads Chihiro to a group of pigs and tells her she has one try to figure out which two are her mother and father. If she guesses correctly they can all go home. Chihiro says that none of the pigs are her mother and father and the pigs turn into workers. Everyone begins cheering because she guessed correctly. Chihiro thanks Yu-Baaba for everything and leaves with Haku to see her parents.