Seven-and-a-half-year-old Alice is playing with her kittens in the living room alone. A black kitten, Kitty, is misbehaving by getting tangled up in yarn. Alice chastises Kitty for tangling the yarn, as well as not letting his mother cat clean him earlier. Even though Kitty disobeys the rules, she kisses him and talks to him as though he can answer her. Alice pretends she and Kitty can play chess together.

She then imagines that there is a “Looking-Glass House” on the other side of the mirror over the fireplace. Alice thinks the Looking-Glass House would have everything the same as their world but mirrored. Alice climbs up on the mantle of the fireplace, which has a mirror on top. She says the mirror is melting, bringing her into the Looking-Glass House. She steps through the portal that leads to the mirror world.

In the alternate world, she is also in a living room, but the chess pieces are alive. The White Queen is crying for her daughter, who is up on a table. Alice tries to talk to them, but she realizes they cannot see or hear her. She picks up the White Queen to bring her to her daughter Lily on the table.