Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones and her parents, Charlie and Mel, move from
Pontiac, Michigan, into the Pink Palace Apartments, an old
Victorian house in
Ashland, Oregon. While searching for an old well, she meets a
black cat and the landlady's grandson Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat, who gives her a rag doll that eerily resembles her. Since her parents are busy with work, Coraline entertains herself by exploring the house, discovering a small door with a brick wall behind it in the living room. That night, she opens the door and finds that the brick wall has been replaced by a tunnel, which leads her to an "Other World", where
button-eyed
doppelgängers of her parents lavish her with delicious food and their attention. Upon waking in the morning, Coraline finds herself back in the real world, where Wybie recounts that his great-aunt disappeared when she was a child. Coraline then meets her neighbors: Sergei Alexander Bobinsky, an eccentric man who owns a mouse circus, and retired
burlesque actresses April Spink and Miriam Forcible, who warn her of impending danger in her future regarding the Other World. Coraline returns to the Other World that night, where she meets Wybie's mute doppelgänger. When she returns yet again, the cat, who can travel between the worlds and is capable of speech, arrives and warns her about the Other World. The Other Mother offers for Coraline to stay in the Other World forever, on the condition of having buttons sewn onto her eyes. Horrified, Coraline desperately tries to return home, but she remains in the Other World. When Coraline tries to escape through the door, the Other Mother imprisons her in a dark room behind a mirror. There, three ghost children, one of whom Coraline recognizes as Wybie's great-aunt, tell Coraline that the Other Mother is an evil entity called the "Beldam", who used rag dolls to spy on their unhappy lives and lure them into the Other World. They allowed her to sew buttons over their eyes and she subsequently devoured their souls. After Coraline promises to help the ghost children by retrieving their "eyes", the Other Wybie helps her escape through the passageway home. Back in the real world, Wybie asks Coraline to return the doll, since it belonged to his great-aunt. She attempts to explain the situation to him, but he disbelieves her and runs out in fear. Coraline receives an
adder stone from Spink and Forcible and, after the cat informs her that the Beldam has kidnapped her parents, the duo set out to rescue them. Knowing that the Beldam has a penchant for games, Coraline proposes a deal: if she finds her parents and the eyes of the ghost children, the Beldam will let them all go; if not, she will stay and accept the Beldam's offer. As Coraline finds and collects each of the missing eyes using the adder stone, she frees the spirits of the ghost children and the Other World begins to fade until all three are collected and the entire dimension, except for the living room, eventually disintegrates. The Beldam, now in her true
arachnid-like form, challenges Coraline to find her parents. Realizing they are trapped in a nearby
snow globe and that the Beldam will not honor her end of the deal, she throws the cat to distract her before seizing the snow globe and narrowly escaping through the door with the ghost children's help, amputating one of the Beldam's hands in the process. Coraline's parents return with no recollection of their capture and she warmly embraces them. Later, the freed ghosts warn Coraline that the Beldam is still after the door's key. As Coraline heads toward the well to dispose of it, the Beldam's amputated hand sneaks into the real world and attempts to drag her back to the Other World. Wybie, having realized Coraline was telling the truth, comes to the rescue and vanquishes the hand before they both throw it and the key down the well. The next day, the Jones family hosts a garden party for the Pink Palace residents. Wybie brings his grandmother to the party and Coraline begins to tell her about her missing sister's fate. ==Voice cast==