Ten-year old orphan Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), goes to live with his eccentric Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) in a spooky-looking house filled with clocks. Upon discovering that Uncle Jonathan is secretly a powerful warlock, Lewis asks his Uncle to teach him magic and soon discovers a world of wonder beyond anything he could have conceived. Lewis an Jonathan band together with Jonathan’s neighbor, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) to battle Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan), an evil warlock bent on destroying the world.