A reclusive and eccentric chocolate maker announces a contest that has children around the world dreaming of finding one of the five golden tickets hidden inside the wrappers of chocolate bars. The tickets grant the bearers a tour of his secretive and magical chocolate factory, as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate. Five children luck into this once-in-a-lifetime chance: the gluttonous Augustus Gloop; the spoiled Veronica Salt; the gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde; the television-obsessed Mike Teavee; and the kind-hearted but poor Charlie Bucket, who barely manages to obtain a chocolate bar due to his family's poverty.

During the tour, the chocolate maker leads the group through his fantastical factory filled with wonders: rivers of chocolate, Oompa-Loompas (miniature workers from a far-off land), and incredible inventions. One by one, the children succumb to their own vices: from greed to pride to envy, each child's flaws lead them to different fates within the factory's whimsical yet hazardous halls, serving as moral lessons. Charlie, accompanied by his equally good-hearted grandfather, witnesses the consequences of the other children's actions, while the mysterious chocolatier observes it all with a mix of amusement and inscrutability.