Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio begins when Master Cherry, a carpenter with a cherry-red nose, starts to chop and plane a log of wood out of which he intends to fashion a table leg. However, the log can speak, and it complains about what Cherry is doing to it. Cherry's neighbor, the beggar Geppetto, comes by to ask for a piece of wood out of which he can craft a puppet that he can use to perform for meager amounts of money. Cherry gives Geppetto the enchanted log. Geppetto uses it to carve a boy puppet he calls Pinocchio, who will be the novel's protagonist.
Pinocchio instantly shows signs of being a troublemaker. As soon as he has legs, he kicks Geppetto, and his nose grows uncontrollably, even as Geppetto carves it back down. Upon taking his first steps, Pinocchio dashes off into town, running from his "papa." A soldier stops Pinocchio, but because Geppetto has a reputation for getting into conflicts with the young local boys who tease him, Pinocchio is released while the soldier marches Geppetto to prison.
Pinocchio goes back home famished, as even a block of wood needs nutrition. In Geppetto's house, he meets the Talking Cricket, who scolds him for running away from his father. Pinocchio rejects the cricket's advice about being an obedient boy, and throws a mallet at the cricket, flattening him dead. That night Pinocchio goes out in search of food that he can beg from people, but only gets a bucket of water dumped on his head.
Geppetto is freed from prison in the morning. He returns home to find Pinocchio has burned off his feet while trying to dry them on a brazier (portable heater). Geppetto gives Pinocchio the three pears he had in his pocket and Pinocchio promises to be a good boy who studies hard at school. First, though, Geppetto makes him an outfit and sells his own coat to buy a spelling book Pinocchio needs for his studies.
When it is time to leave for school the next morning, Pinocchio is tempted by a puppet theater set up near the shore. He sells the spelling book to afford entrance to the theater, inside which he meets several fellow puppets, all of whom are delighted to see him. However, the fearsome puppet master threatens to burn a puppet to cook his mutton; it is only when Pinocchio offers to sacrifice himself in place of another puppet that the puppet master decides not to burn anyone. When Pinocchio leaves, the master gives him five gold coins for his impoverished father.
On his way home, Pinocchio meets a fox and a cat, who pretend to be disabled to attract Pinocchio's attention. They convince the puppet to plant his coins in the Field of Miracles, where they will grow into bushes yielding 2,500 coins. On the way, they stop at an inn, where they spend one of his coins on a lavish meal. In the morning, the fox and cat ambush Pinocchio disguised as robbers. He refuses to open his mouth, where he has stashed his coins, and he runs up to a white house. The beautiful blue-haired fairy living there doesn't open the door for him, so the fox and cat catch and hang him from an oak tree. They leave after a while, bored with waiting for him to die.
The fairy sends a falcon to cut Pinocchio's noose down and bring him into the house. The fairy questions him about why the robbers were after him, and Pinocchio lies about still possessing his gold. The lies make his nose grow so long that he cannot move. Eventually, after Pinocchio recovers, he and the fairy agree they are like brother and sister now. Pinocchio sets off for home, but encounters the cat and fox, who feign ignorance about his attack. He goes with them to the Field of Miracles. When Pinocchio learns they have stolen the gold he planted, he appeals to a local judge. The judge is sympathetic, but for some reason imprisons Pinocchio, perhaps for his foolishness. Pinocchio spends several months in prison until he is freed because of a general amnesty granted to all prisoners.
Pinocchio sets off for the blue-haired fairy's house, but along the way, he is caught in an iron leg trap set out for polecats (weasels). The peasant who set the trap makes Pinocchio act as his guard dog for the night. Pinocchio meets four polecats who offer him a deal in which they would be allowed to steal chickens. Pinocchio double-crosses them, and the peasant is so pleased with his work that he frees the puppet.
Upon reaching the area where the fairy's house once stood, Pinocchio finds a tombstone claiming that the fairy died of grief because her little brother, Pinocchio, abandoned her. Pinocchio rides a giant pigeon to the seashore, where Geppetto is just setting out in a boat to find his son. However, a storm kicks up, and it appears as though Geppetto drowns. Pinocchio swims to an island full of hard-working people. There he begs unsuccessfully until he meets the blue-haired fairy again; this time, however, she is an adult. She takes him in and he begins thinking of her as his mother.
While living with the fairy, Pinocchio starts attending school. He becomes a studious and popular pupil, much to his and the fairy's surprise. However, Pinocchio ruins his perfect attendance record when his friends convince him to skip class to see a giant dogfish at the beach. A fight breaks out among the boys, and one of Pinocchio's books knocks Eugene unconscious. Two soldiers arrive to help, and they apprehend Pinocchio, believing he was responsible for the assault. However, Pinocchio gets free and swims away, winding up in a green fisherman's net. The fisherman, who dwells alone in a cave, dips the puppet in flour and prepares to fry him in oil, believing Pinocchio is a rare variety of fish. Pinocchio is rescued by the dog who the soldiers sent running after him earlier, and who Pinocchio saved when the dog couldn't swim.
Pinocchio returns to the fairy's home and makes good on another promise to be good. The fairy organizes a ceremony in which Pinocchio will be turned into a real boy. But while inviting his friends, Pinocchio is convinced by the mischievous Candlewick to follow him to another country where they can play all day and never go to school. For some time the boys enjoy their lives in the strange land, but eventually they discover that boys who never work turn into donkeys. They also learn that the man who brought them there runs a scheme in which he scoops up boys, lets them turn into donkeys, and then sells the donkeys off. Pinocchio and Candlewick are sold to different men.
Pinocchio works as a performing donkey; however, when he injures his leg, Pinocchio is sold off to a man who tries to drown him so that he can use his skin to make a drum. While hanging by a rope in the ocean, Pinocchio transforms back into a puppet. He escapes and swims out until he spots a blue-haired goat on a rock. However, he is swallowed by the giant dogfish. Inside the dogfish's stomach, he meets Geppetto again. It turns out that Geppetto never drowned. He has been living in the fish's stomach.
Pinocchio and Geppetto swim out while the dogfish is sleeping with its mouth open. A tuna that was also inside the dogfish helps bring them to safety. On land, Pinocchio and Geppetto take refuge in a straw hut the fairy made for them. The ghost of the Talking Cricket is there, and he advises Pinocchio to earn milk from a neighboring farmer if he is hungry. Pinocchio labors diligently for the peasant, taking the place of the Candlewick-donkey, who the peasant worked to death.
Over time, Pinocchio brings Geppetto back to health and even earns extra money by weaving baskets in the evenings. When Pinocchio learns the fairy is ill, he sends the five dollars he has saved for a coat along to her instead of spending it on himself. To reward his sacrifice and obedience to his parents, the fairy transforms Pinocchio into a real boy. He also wakes up in a cozy house where he and Geppetto live securely and happily.
