The spirits La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, appear at San Angel's Day of the Dead festival where they set up a wager after seeing two boys, Manolo and Joaquín, competing over a free-spirited girl named María. La Muerte bets that Manolo will marry María, while Xibalba bets on Joaquín. If La Muerte wins, Xibalba can no longer interfere in mortal affairs, but if Xibalba wins, he and La Muerte will switch domains. Later, María sets free a herd of animals due to be slaughtered, much to the chagrin of her father General Posada, who sends Maria away to a private boarding school in Spain to learn to behave. While seeing her off, Manolo gives her a baby pig, Chuy, while she gives him a new guitar which has "Always play from the heart"[6] engraved on it.
Years pass as Manolo is trained by his father Carlos to become a skilled bullfighter while Joaquín becomes the town hero with the help of Xibalba's Medal of Eternal Life. On the day that María returns, a celebration is held in town culminating in Manolo's first bullfight. During the fight, Manolo refuses to kill the bull, disappointing his father and the crowd but delighting María. That night, María learns her father is arranging her marriage to Joaquín so that the hero would stay and protect San Angel from the bandit Chakal, but she is conflicted by her feelings for Manolo. María and Manolo secretly meet and profess their love for each other, but they are interrupted when a snake, sent by Xibalba, bites María and seemingly kills her. Despondent, Manolo is tricked by Xibalba who offers him a way to see Maria again, as he summons the snake to inflict a double bite which kills Manolo.
Manolo travels to the Land of the Remembered where he reunites with his mother, Carmen and his illustrious deceased family members. They travel to La Muerte's castle, but find it now occupied by Xibalba who explains the bet and that the snake only gave María enough venom to put her into a coma, but it gave Manolo enough to kill him. Once María awoke, she learned of Manolo's death and decides to accept Joaquín's proposal for the sake of the town. Manolo, Carmen and Manolo's grandfather, Luis travel to the Cave of Souls in order to reach the Land of the Forgotten. After accomplishing a pair of dangerous tasks, Manolo's pure heart allows him and his family to enter the Cave, where they meet the Candle Maker, who oversees the lives of everybody in the living world. After seeing that Manolo's story in the Book of Life is empty (due to Xibalba's meddling) and can be rewritten by Manolo's own actions, the Candle Maker takes the group to the Land of the Forgotten. There, Manolo finds La Muerte and exposes Xibalba's cheating. Xibalba appears and agrees to give Manolo life again if he can face his greatest fear, which Xibalba has manifest as every single bull his family ever fought.
In the living world, Chakal learns that Joaquín has the Medal of Eternal Life and leads his army of bandits to San Angel on the day of the wedding. The bandit kills Carlos, who joins his family as they watch Manolo's challenge. Manolo apologizes to the grudge-filled spirit to forgive his family's transgressions and it dissolves peacefully away. Impressed, the deities grant Manolo his life back and send him and his family's spirits to the living world to defeat Chakal. After saving the town, Joaquín returns the medal to Xibalba, while Manolo and María wed happily as Xibalba and La Muerte reconcile.
At the end, as the now-enlightened children leave the museum, Mary Beth and a security guard introduced earlier reveal themselves as La Muerte and Xibalba, and the Candle Maker reminds everyone to write their own stories.
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