Jim is recaptured while helping the doctor look after Tom. Then Aunt Polly arrives unexpectedly, and the truth about Tom and Huck's name-switching comes out, along with their involvement in Jim's escape.
Aunt Polly and Mrs Harper discover that their boys are missing, and realize that Tom, Joe and Huck ran away. They start to fear the worst when the leaky boat the boys stole washes ashore.
Joe and Huck are starting to get bored of being pirates and consider going home but Tom, having overheard the plans for the boys' funeral, has a more dramatic return in mind.
Tom and Joe are both miserable so, together with Huck, they decide the only thing for them to do is to run away and become pirates. When their boat springs a leak, they set up camp on Jackson Island.
Aunt Polly and Widow Douglas blame themselves for not doing more to help Huck. Then Miss Watson's slave, Jim, runs away. Meanwhile Huck is enjoying his new-found freedom on Jackson Island.
After searching around town all day, Huck finally finds Indian Joe plotting to take revenge on Widow Douglas. Meanwhile, Tom and Becky leave the school group to go exploring on their own, but get lost in the caves.
Huck eventually escapes from the cabin where his father locked him up, and sets about making it look as if he's been attacked. Finding the cabin empty, Judge Thatcher suspects that Pap Finn has murdered Huck.
Huck and Jim find a raft washed ashore by the high water, and think their luck is even better when they also find a house boat... until they discover a dead body inside.
Tom plays hooky to go swimming with Huck, and nearly gets away with it too until Sid interferes. To get back at him, Tom rashly boasts that he'll get a prize bible before Sid does.
With the raft and all his belongings lost, and no idea where Jim is, Huck looks for shelter and stumbles across the Grangerfords, who are busy feuding with their neighbors.