Spain, 1944. Officially, the Civil War has been over for five years, but a small group of rebels fights on in the northern mountains of Navarra. Dreamy 10-year-old Ofelia and her pregnant mother Carmen move to Navarra, joining her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. A Fascist officer, he is under orders to destroy the rebels. Ofelia discovers an overgrown, tumbledown labyrinth and meets an ancient faun who claims to know her true identity and secret destiny. She can learn them if she completes three tasks before the full moon. But no one must know: not her ailing mother or her new friend Mercedes. Time is running out, and both Ofelia and the rebels will have to battle hardship and cruelty in order to gain their freedom. Who can be trusted in a time of lies and danger? Is the faun telling the truth ...? If not, who is?