The Secret World of Arrietty

Spending the summer at his aunt’s home, the frail young Shou stumbles on an astonishing sight: a tiny girl no bigger than his finger, glimpsed after he follows the family cat into the garden. She calls herself Arrietty, one of the “Borrowers,” a hidden people who survive by taking minuscule odds and ends from human households. Before long, Shou learns Arrietty lives beneath the house with her parents, Pod and Homily, and he can’t help but be captivated by the idea of such secret neighbors.

For Arrietty’s family, staying unseen is a matter of survival. Their days are shaped by the constant need for secrecy and risky trips into human spaces—inside the house and beyond—to gather what they need. Against her parents’ cautions, Arrietty forms a friendship with Shou, setting in motion events that threaten to upend both of their worlds.