Hugo Cabret is a 12-year-old orphan secretly living in a Paris train station, where he maintains the clocks and tries to repair a mysterious automaton—a mechanical man—left by his late father. His theft of parts from a bitter toy shop owner leads him to the owner's goddaughter, Isabelle, and they discover their lives are connected through the automaton, old films, and the shop owner's hidden past. Together, they unlock a secret that reveals the shop owner is actually Georges Méliès, a forgotten pioneer of early cinema, and help restore his legacy.