One night a teenage girl, Sarah, is left to babysit her younger brother while her parents go out. While trying to keep her baby brother from crying she starts to tell him a story about the Goblin King. In this story the Goblin King takes children away from their families. This story becomes reality as Sarah, played by Jennifer Connelly, goes after her brother who is taken and in the castle of the Goblin King Jareth, played by David Bowie, which is in the middle of a labyrinth. On her jouney she encounters many strange beings and dangerous obstacles, but she is persistant as she must save her brother before its to late, and he too becomes a goblin.