Chapter 1: Peter Breaks Through

The first chapter of Peter Pan opens with the iconic line “All children,
except one, grow up.” The narrator first introduces young Wendy—
the oldest child of the Darling family—as she watches a flower
bloom.

Mr. and Mrs. Darling are Wendy’s parents. Recounting their love
story, the narrator explains that while many other men desired Mrs.
Darling, Mr. Darling won her affection. They married and had three
children: Wendy, John, and Michael. Additionally, the Darlings have
a Newfoundland named Nana, whom they refer to as “quite treasure
of a nurse.” The narrator then claims that “there never was a
simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.”
In their dreams, the children visit an imaginary land, the
Neverlands. As Mrs. Darling embarks on “travels of her children’s
minds,” Wendy describes Peter Pan to her mother. Mrs. Darling
thinks he is a make-believe character that she vaguely remembers
from her childhood and tells the children it is nonsense put in their
heads by Nana. Wendy explains to her mother that Peter Pan visits
the nursery at night; while her mother thinks she is just imagining
things, the rustling leaves on Wendy’s bedside puzzle her. The
chapter ends with Mrs. Darling dreaming of Peter Pan’s arrival in
England from Neverland, and when she awakes, she recognizes his
figure in the window. 

Chapter 2: The Shadow

As soon as Peter arrives, Nana attacks him. Fearful he has died,

Mrs. Darling goes to look for him, and when she returns, she sees
Nana with a shadow in her mouth. The narrator then provides
flashbacks to Wendy’s birth, then John’s, and then Michael’s. When
Mr. and Mrs. Darling talk about the children, they address each
other as Mother and Father. As they reminisce about Michael’s
resistance to taking medicine, Michael calls his father “a cowardly
custard,” because Mr. Darling hides his own medicine behind his
back while Michael takes his. He then puts the medicine in Nana’s
bowl, which makes Nana feel sad and Mr. Darling ashamed. He
expresses jealousy toward Nana for receiving more affection from
the children, drags her outside, and ties her up in the backyard.
While Mr. and Mrs. Darling are on the street looking at the stars,
they hear “the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way” exclaim,
“Now, Peter!”

Chapter 3: Come Away, Come Away!

Peter Pan looks for his shadow in the nursery with his fairy, Tinker
Bell. Frustrated, Peter cries because he is unable to attach his
shadow to his body, and he tries to stick it on with soap. Wendy
awakes to see Peter, and they introduce themselves to one another.
When he tells Wendy he does not have a mother, her instinct is to
console him; but he tells her he doesn’t want a mother and is
instead upset because he is unable to stick his shadow to his body.
Wendy thus sews Peter’s shadow to him. Afterward, Peter exclaims
how clever he is for sewing on his shadow, upsetting Wendy, as he
has taken credit for her idea. Peter then approaches her and tells
her that “one girl is more use than twenty boys.” Wendy finds this
sentiment especially charming and offers to give him a kiss. As she
leans forward to kiss Peter—who does not know what a kiss is—he
puts an acorn button in her hand. Wendy responds by telling him
she will “wear his kiss on a chain around her neck.”

Wendy asks Peter how old he is. He replies that he doesn’t know
and that he never wants to grow up. She continues to ask him
questions and is especially curious about fairies. Peter tells her that
fairies are born out of a baby’s laughter and that every time a child
says that they do not believe in fairies, a fairy dies. He also explains
that “the tinker of bells” is the fairy language. As Peter realizes that
he stuck Tinker Bell in a drawer, Wendy expresses excitement to
meet her.

After Wendy questions Peter about his home, he tells her that he
lives with “the lost boys,” who are abandoned children sent to
Neverland. He expresses to her that the boys are lonely without any
girls around. Wendy, enamored with the way Peter talks about girls,
asks to kiss him again but refers to a kiss as a “thimble.” After she
kisses him, Peter asks to give her a thimble, and while kissing
Wendy, Tinker Bell pulls Wendy’s hair. Tinker Bell tells Peter she will
pull Wendy’s hair every time Peter and Wendy kiss.

Wendy learns that Peter has been listening to Mrs. Darling’s stories
from outside their bedroom window. As he overheard Mrs. Darling
reading Cinderella to them, Peter became enamored with the story.
He thus becomes overjoyed when Wendy tells him that Cinderella
and the prince live happily ever after. Peter then tells Wendy that
she should come with him to Neverland so she can share the ending
to Cinderella to the other lost boys. She is flattered but fearful of
flying and of leaving her mother. Peter insists to Wendy that if she
comes with him, she can tuck the boys in at night and will be
treated with respect. John, who has since woken up, asks Peter how
to fly. He responds, “You just think lovely wonderful thoughts . . .
until they lift you up in the air.” Peter then blows fairy dust on the
three Darling children, which enables them to fly. He continues to
convince Wendy, John, and Michael to come with him and Tinker
Bell to Neverland, and he does so by enticing them with adventures
with pirates and mermaids.

Meanwhile, Nana forces her way into the Darlings’ dinner party,
signaling to the parents that something is wrong with the children.
Immediately, Mr. and Mrs. Darling run out of the dinner party and
onto the street. As they look into the nursery window from outside,
they see the children flying around the room. The parents then race
to the nursery to get to the children on time, but they are too late.
The stars cause the window to swing open, and the children fly with
Peter into the night sky.

Chapter 4: The Flight

The three children are now flying in the sky with Peter to Neverland.
They begin to get tired and hungry as the journey progresses, with
Peter searching for food by dueling the birds. Peter’s clever yet
reckless “pranks” began to frighten Wendy; his constant need to
show off is becoming exhausting for John and Michael as well. But
Wendy insists that they need to be nice to him if they ever want to
return home, because he is the only one who can help them.

Eventually, Peter tells the Darling children they’ve arrived in

Neverland, pointing out golden arrows that lead to the island.
Described as “a familiar friend to whom they were returning home
for the holidays,” the island has features the children recognize,
such as Michael’s cave, John’s flamingo, and Wendy’s boat. As night
arrives, however, the island becomes more sinister. Sensing an
ominous evil, Peter implores the Darlings to go on an adventure to
kill a pirate.

After choosing to have tea first, Peter tells them about the pirates
on the island and their captain, James Hook. Recognizing Hook’s
name, Michael and John grow fearful. Peter reveals to them that he
cut off Hook’s right hand, so the pirate captain now has an iron
hook for a right hand. Peter makes John promise him that if they do
end up confronting Hook, John “must leave him to” Peter. Observing
Tinker Bell’s light, Peter warns that sometimes the pirates can chase
him down if they see fairy lights; alarmed, Wendy asks Peter to
make her fly away, but he refuses to. They all then agree to carry
Tinker Bell in John’s hat.

Soon after, the pirates fire Long Tom at them; in hearing Hook’s
voice, the three Darlings “learn the difference between an island of
make believe and the same island come true.” When “the heavens
become steady again,” the children are separated, with John and
Michael on land and alone in the dark and Wendy flying with Tinker
Bell. Peter has been blown off into the distant sky. In a deceivingly
friendly manner, Tinker Bell leads Wendy, who is unaware of the
fairy’s hatred for her, “to her doom.” 

Chapter 5: The Island Come True

During Peter’s absence, the narrator introduces the various groups
on the island—the lost boys, redskins, and beasts—who are going
around in circles hunting each other. Peter is the leader of the lost
boys, a group of motherless children who, like him, refuse to grow
up.

As the lost boys hear the pirates’ song in the distance, the pirates—
which include Italian Cecco, Bill Jukes, Gentleman Starkey,
Cookson, Skylights, Noodler, Robt, Alf Mason, Mullins, and Smee—
are introduced. The pirates have all committed various crimes, and
their leader is Captain James “Jas” Hook. Hook is described as
“cadaverous” and “blackivized,” dressed elegantly, and with a
haughty demeanor. The other pirates, who believe his iron hook to
be his only flaw, see him as “a man of indomitable courage.”

On the other hand, the redskins, whose "naked bodies gleam with
paint and oil,” carry the scalps of both lost boys and pirates. Tiger
Lily, “a princess in her own right,” stands out from the group for her
beauty and confidence.

The beasts—“lions, tigers, bears, and the innumerable smaller

savage things that flee from them”—then arrive, followed by a giant
crocodile. Hearing the pirates arriving, the boys hide by retreating
to their cave through the holes of hollow trees. Starkey spots Nibs,
but Hook stops him from shooting the boy, apprehensive that the
noise will draw the redskins their way. As Hook and Smee speak
privately, Hook expresses his overwhelming desire to catch Peter
Pan. After recalling that Peter cut off his hand, Hook claims to prefer
having an iron hook but adamantly exclaims his desire for revenge.

As the pirates try to pull a mushroom out of the ground, they realize
it is the chimney of the lost boys’ underground home. Knowing
Peter is not with them, they hatch a plan to leave a poisoned cake
by the mermaids’ lagoon to lure the boys in. Earlier, Hook explains
that the crocodile that ate his hand later swallowed a clock. The
pirates then hear a ticking noise, and it turns out to be the
crocodile.
As the boys emerge from their home, Nibs comes running toward
them, followed by a pack of wolves. Faced with danger, they ask
each other what Peter would do and decide to charge the wolves,
and the wolves scamper off. Nibs then tells them that he saw a
beautiful, large, white bird in the sky, which turns out to be Wendy.
She and Tinker Bell land, and the boys greet the fiary, who “had
now cast off all disguise of friendship.” Tinker Bell tells them that
Peter ordered them to kill “The Wendy,” and because they are so
accustomed to not questioning Peter’s orders, they get out their
bows and arrows. Then, from a tree, Tootles shoots Wendy in the
chest.

Chapter 6: The Little House

In approaching Wendy’s body, the boys are terrified to realize she is

“a lady” and not a bird, and they accuse Tootles of killing the
mother figure sent to them by Peter. While ashamed, Tootles
stubbornly claims that he sometimes shoots his mother in his
dreams. As he starts to leave, the other boys tell him not to, and at
that moment, they hear Peter’s crowing sound.

Peter is surprised that the lost boys don’t seem more excited to see
him. Tootles thus reveals Wendy’s body, and Peter says, “Perhaps
she is frightened at being dead.” Peter pulls the arrow out of
Wendy’s chest, demanding to know who killed her. Tootles admits
to the deed, but Peter can’t bring himself to kill Tootles. However,
the boys then realize that Wendy is alive; inspecting her chest,
Peter notes that the “the kiss” he gave her stopped the arrow from
piercing her heart. When Tinker Bell cries because Wendy survived,
the other boys tell Peter what Tink told them, and Peter is furious
with her.

Wondering what they can do to keep Wendy alive, Peter suggests

they build a small house around her, and the boys begin work on it.
John and Michael then stumble upon the lost boys and greet Peter,
who is busy tending to Wendy’s home. Peter recruits them to help
build the house, telling them that because she is a girl, they are her
servants. He asks Wendy to sing in her sleep what kind of house
she wants, which she does.

Peter meticulously sees to it that Wendy’s house has every possible

feature; when he feels it is complete, he knocks on the door. She
opens the door, and the boys, anxious to see a girl, enthusiastically
greet her, telling her that they are her children and she is their
mother. While Wendy tells them she is only a girl, she admits that
she does have quite a maternal nature and agrees to try and be
their mother. She invites them inside to finish telling them the story
of Cinderella, which “was the first of the many joyous evenings they
had with Wendy.” At nightfall, Peter falls asleep while guarding
Wendy’s new home.

Chapter 7: The Home Underground

Wendy, John, and Michael are being fitted for the hollow holes of their trees
that allow them access to the underground. The underground home consists
of mushrooms for seats, a huge tree that grows rapidly through the middle—
which they have to cut down every day in order to have enough room to
play—Tinker Bell’s fancy “private apartment,” and a large bed that
everybody shares, except for Michael, who, as the baby of the family, sleeps
in a crib.

Wendy has been working hard to take care of the boys by cooking their
meals, sewing their clothes, and doing their laundry. Her pet wolf from her
prior dreams of Neverland has found her and has followed her everywhere
since. However, she becomes concerned about her parents, especially
because sometimes John and Michael cannot remember them. Wendy thus
gives her brothers exams about their parents’ features so they will not forget
them, and the other boys excitedly join in, despite not knowing Mr. and Mrs.
Darling. Peter refuses, however, because “he despised all mothers except
Wendy.” While in their home underground, Wendy and the boys narrate
make-believe adventures, often taking on the roles of redskins and pirates in
their games. While choosing which adventure to go on next, the group
decides to go to the mermaids’ lagoon. 

Chapter 8: The Mermaids’ Lagoon

The boys often go to the mermaids’ lagoon to play, but they do not
necessarily get along with the mermaids; however, the mermaids do get
along with Peter. The boys always stay away from the lagoon in moonlight,
and the narrator suggests that the lagoon becomes an ominous and
dangerous place during the night.

The children often sunbathe on Marooner’s Rock in the mermaids’ lagoon. On

this day, as they lie on the rock, the lagoon “that had always been hitherto
such a laughing place” mysteriously turns cold and dark. Wendy, afraid,
does not wake up the children, but Peter’s ability to sense danger wakes him
up, and he warns the others that pirates are coming. The boys dive into the
water, and a pirate dinghy approaches, carrying Smee, Starkey, and Tiger
Lily, whom the pirates have taken captive. The dinghy crashes into a rock,
where they plan to leave Tiger Lily to die. Wendy and Peter watch while
floating in the water nearby. To save Tiger Lily, Peter decides to imitate
Hook’s voice and tells Smee and Starkey to set her free; they are fooled by
his imitation and cut off her cords. However, shortly after, the real Hook’s
voice can be heard, and Wendy and Peter realize he is also in the water.
They see him get into the boat with Smee and Starkey, solemnly telling
them that “the game is over” because the boys have found a mother. Smee
does not know what a mother is, which surprises Wendy; she makes a noise,
and the pirates hear. Accordingly, Smee suggests to Hook that they kidnap
Wendy and make her the pirates’ mother. Hook agrees to the plan and asks
the two pirates where Tiger Lily is. Angry and shocked when Smee and
Starkey tell Hook that they heard Hook give the order to let her go, Hook
tells them it was not him. Suspecting that someone is tricking them, Hook
calls out to ask whose “spirit . . . haunts this dark lagoon tonight.” Peter
foolishly responds but says that he is Captain Hook, and when Hook
questions this, Peter claims that Hook himself is a codfish. The other pirates
believe this. Hook decides to play a guessing game with Peter, asking him
questions about his identity; finally, when Hook asks him if he is a
“wonderful boy,” he answers yes. Peter eventually reveals to the pirates that
he is indeed Peter Pan.

Peter calls out to the other boys, who come out of their hiding places. As a
fight ensues between the pirates and the lost boys, Peter is determined to
confront Captain Hook. When the two approach one another, Peter steals
one of Hook’s knives, but when Peter notices that Hook is below him—giving
Peter an unfair advantage—he assists Hook up the rock. Nevertheless, Hook
bites Peter’s hand, which makes Peter feel “quite helpless,” and Hook swipes
him again with his hook. The boys then see Hook swim frantically toward his
boat with the alligator in pursuit; rather than celebrate, the boys become
worried when they realize Peter and Wendy are missing. Knowing that Peter
always returns, they go back to their home underground. Soon after, Peter
and Wendy appear out of the water, with Wendy in Peter’s arms. Seeing the
water rising, Peter becomes anxious and tells Wendy that they are stuck on
a rock that will soon be submerged in water. When Wendy asks Peter if they
should swim or fly, Peter tells her he can do neither because of his wounds.
Seeing Michael’s kite drifting over the lagoon, Peter suggests that Wendy
use the kite to fly away. Wendy wants Peter to come with her, but he knows
the kite cannot carry two, so he ties the kite’s tail around her and lets her
go. At first, Peter is afraid, but after some thought, he says that “To die will
be an awfully big adventure.” 

Chapter 9: The Never Bird

As the rock becomes further submerged, Peter sees a piece of paper floating
in the water. This piece of paper turns out to be the Never bird, who is there
to save Peter. She tells him to get into her nest, but because Peter doesn’t
understand her language, they get in an argument. The Never bird, still
determined to save him, clears some of the eggs out of her nest so that
Peter can sit in it. As they depart, Peter observes a stave on the rock—filled
with the pirates’ treasures—that the children found and henceforth puts the
remaining eggs inside his hat. Peter then places the eggs carefully in the
lagoon, where they float to shore. Further, he uses the stave as a mast and
creates a sail with his shirt. Peter henceforth finds his way back to the
underground home, where Wendy has already returned.

Chapter 10: The Happy Home

After Peter saves Tiger Lily’s life, the redskins unite with the lost
boys. The redskins begin to refer to Peter as “Peter the Great White
Father,” and Peter relishes their admiration of him. Together, the
groups are awaiting the pirates’ inevitable attack. Wendy has grown
frustrated with the lost boys and their mischievous behavior;
however, because the boys respect her as their mother, they follow
her rules. After Wendy refers to Peter as “father,” the boys have a
discussion about who should be father; this boils over into an
argument, with the boys complaining about each other.

Peter and Wendy continue to embrace their roles as parents to the

boys, and the two pretend to be an old married couple.
Nevertheless, Peter expresses concern about being a father,
because that would make him a man, though Wendy assures him it
is make-believe. Wendy then asks him about his feelings toward
her, and she is offended when he tells her, “those of a devoted
son.” She insinuates to Peter that she has romantic feelings toward
him, but Peter does not seem to understand, and Wendy snaps at
him after Peter suggests that Tinker Bell could be his mother.
Before the chapter ends, Peter surprisingly decides to sit and listen
to a story of Wendy’s that he usually refuses to listen to. 

Chapter 11: Wendy’s Story

Wendy begins telling the boys her story, which turns out to be
about her parents. She tells them how the Darlings had three
children, and after Mr. Darling tied Nana up outside, “all the children
flew away . . . to the Neverland, where the lost children are.” As the
story progresses, she tells them how “our heroine” knew that Mrs.
Darling would leave the window open until the children returned.
When the boys implore Wendy to tell them whether the children
ever do come home, she jumps forward in time. In the story,
Wendy and her brothers are in London, discovering the window to
their nursery still open; they fly in and reunite with their parents.

As the story ends, Peter’s negative reaction to the story is evident,

and he tells Wendy that she is wrong about mothers. He reveals
that his own mother never left the window open for him, and when
he flew back “moons and moons later,” she had another son.

John, Michael, and Wendy decide that they need to go home, and
Wendy is taken aback by Peter’s cold response to this decision. The
lost boys then turn on Wendy, but Tootles warns that he will kill
anyone who “does not behave to Wendy like an English gentleman.”
The other boys comply, knowing that Peter would never keep a girl
hostage.

Afterward, Peter tells Wendy that the redskins will lead her through
the woods and that Tinker Bell will lead her across the sea. The
boys are sad to see their mother go, which prompts Wendy to
suggest—hoping Peter will accept—that the boys come with her and
her brother back to London, feeling confident that her parents would
adopt all of them. When the boys ask Peter if they can go, he
obliges, but soon after, he tells Wendy that he will not be going with
them and feigns indifference toward their impending departure.
Wendy says that he can perhaps find his mother, but Peter resists,
still believing that he does not need one. Peter hastily says
goodbye, commanding Tinker Bell to lead the way; however, before
the group takes off, they learn that the pirates have attacked the
redskins. Knowing a battle is coming, they anxiously look to Peter to
protect them.

Chapter 12: The Children Are Carried Off

The narrator explains how, by attacking the redskins first, the

pirates violated the “unwritten laws of savage warfare.” Hook and
the other pirates set foot on their land, to the surprise of the
redskins, who anticipate deadly results from the pirates’ attack.
Hook relentlessly carries out the attack, and “because the noble
savage must never express surprise in the presence of a white,” the
redskins wait too long to retaliate, resulting in a massacre with
many deaths on both sides.

Afterwards, Hook is still unsatisfied, because more than anything,

he wants to defeat Peter Pan. The narrator explains that, above all,
Hook obsessively despises Peter for his cockiness and that “while
Peter lived, the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into
which a sparrow had come.”

The pirates, now eavesdropping on the boys from the trees, hear
Peter say that the redskins would have beaten their tom-toms if
they had won the battle. Hook then commands Smee to beat the
tom-tom, deceiving the children into believing that the redskins
won. While the lost boys continue saying goodbye to Peter, the
pirates wait in the trees to attack, eagerly awaiting the opportunity
to capture Peter.
Chapter 13: Do You Believe in Fairies?

The pirates snatch the boys out from their trees and proceed to
violently tie them up. Hook, in “malicious triumph,” watches as the
pirates struggle to tie up Slightly; he discovers Slightly’s secret,
which is that he “whittled his tree to make it fit him” without telling
the others. Hook then orders the other pirates to take the captive
children to a conveyance.

During the attack, Peter is alone in the underground house,

unaware of what is going on. As he lies on the bed, he mourns
Wendy’s departure; he has been having painful dreams since she
left. However, on this night, Peter falls into a “dreamless sleep.”
Hook watches him from a tree, becoming infuriated at Peter’s
“impertinent appearance as he slept.” When Hook notices Peter’s
medicine, he decides to add five drops of poison to it and quietly
scurries away into the night.

Peter wakes up to a knock on the door the next morning, which

turns out to be Tinker Bell. She frantically tells him what happened
to Wendy and the boys. Peter immediately exclaims that he will
save Wendy and wants to take his medicine beforehand as a tribute
to her. Tinker Bell, having overheard Hook in the night, warns him
that the captain poisoned it. She stops Peter from drinking it by
intercepting his mouth and the cup, thus drinking the poison instead
to save his life. Tinker Bell’s light begins to fade as she weakens,
and tells Peter that she might survive “if children believed in
fairies.” He cries out, hoping to reach any children “who may be
dreaming of the Neverland” to clap if they believe in fairies. Tinker
Bell is saved by the distant sound of clapping children, and the two
of them then endeavor to find Wendy. Peter, initially apprehensive
about traveling by foot in the dark, begins to feel invigorated,
swearing “Hook or me this time” as he and Wendy depart. 

Chapter 14: The Pirate Ship

Some of the pirates are sleeping on their ship, the Jolly Roger.
Meanwhile, Hook paces the deck, feeling conflicted about capturing
the boys and sweating profusely at his impending encounter with
Peter Pan. He displays self-pity, lamenting that he has “no little
children” to love him. Hook’s dejected demeanor soon changes,
though, and he asks the other pirates if the children are chained.
The children are brought to him, and Hook affirms that while six of
them will walk the plank that night, he will allow two of them to be
his cabin boys.

Soon after, Hook singles John out of the group to question if he has
ever wanted to be a pirate. John responds that he sometimes called
himself Red-handed Jack. When Hook asks Jack and Michael to join
the pirates, the two boys seem tempted but refuse after Hook
commands them to vow “Down with the King.” Infuriated, Hook
signals the other pirates to fetch Wendy and tells John and Michael
that they will both walk the plank tonight.

As Wendy appears, Hook taunts her. After she tells the children that
all of their mothers would want them “to die like English
gentlemen,” he orders the pirates to tie Wendy up. However, soon
after, the crocodile’s ticking clock is heard. Hook collapses in fear,
just as another pirate yells that the crocodile is boarding the ship.
As he crawls away in anguish, Hook commands the other pirates to
hide him. The pirates gather around Hook to obscure him from
view, aware that they have no chance of winning against the
crocodile. Hereafter, the boys run to the ship’s edge to see the
crocodile; instead, they see Peter.

Chapter 15: Hook or Me This Time

After Peter swears to avenge Hook once and for all at the end of
chapter thirteen, he stumbles upon the crocodile while traversing
the island and notices that it is not making a ticking sound. He
reasons that “the clock had run down,” and when he passes the
other crocodiles, Peter makes a ticking sound to fool them and
manages to make his way through them without incident. In his
resolve to get to Hook, Peter continues to subconsciously make the
ticking sound.

Peter, aboard the ship, begins to aid the boys in their escape; he
strikes the first pirate to spot him, but the other boys manage to
muffle the sound before throwing the pirate overboard. While Peter
disappears into the cabin, Smee, Hook, and the others wait in terror
for the ticking noise to return. When Smee assures the pirates that
the sound is gone, Hook gleefully mocks the terrified prisoners with
pirate songs and then asks them if they’d like to see his cat before
they walk the plank.

Hook commands Jukes to fetch the cat from the cabin, where Peter
is currently hiding. As Hook continues singing, they hear a terrifying
screech from the cabin, followed by Peter’s crowing noise, which the
boys recognize. Cecco then stumbles out of the cabin to tell them
that Jukes was stabbed and killed. Hook notices “the exultation of
the boys” and orders Cecco to get him the “doodle-doo” from the
cabin; afterward, they hear another “death-screech,” followed by
the crowing sound. Frustrated, Hook then demands Starkey to go,
but Starkey begs for mercy before leaping overboard.

Hook thus decides to go into the cabin himself. Soon after, he

stumbles out of the cabin without his lantern, telling the others that
his light went out. Hook’s “reluctance to return” to the cabin
prompts the other pirates to call him out on his cowardice, now
believing that the ship is cursed. Irritated at the children’s gleeful
reaction to this news, he orders the other pirates to force the
children into the cabin to “fight the doodle-doo for their lives.”

Meanwhile, Wendy—who is still tied to a mast—looks around

anxiously for Peter to emerge. Luckily, Peter finds the keys to
unchain the boys, and they arm themselves for battle. He goes first
to free Wendy, taking her place on the mast. After mistaking Peter’s
crowing for the children’s screams, the other pirates become
incensed at Hook, who reasons with them by saying that it is bad
luck to have a woman aboard, and everything will be fine once
Wendy is off of the ship.
When the pirates approach, Peter unveils himself. Further
recognizing Hook’s incompetence, the pirates do not follow his
orders, and the boys take advantage of this situation. The pirates
scatter in fear, and the boys defeat them with ease. As the boys
surround Hook, Peter charges forward, and they form a ring around
“the two enemies.” The fight ensues, and it is unclear who will be
victorious; however, this changes when Hook’s attempts to do his
“favorite thrust” are ineffective. He instead tries to swipe at Peter
with his iron hook, but Peter drives a sword into Hook’s ribs. Hook,
now at Peter’s mercy, asks him what he is. Peter responds by
saying that he is “a little bird that has broken out of the egg.” Peter
invites Hook to continue dueling, and Hook, “fighting now without
hope,” swings his sword erratically as Peter dodges his blows.

Feeling determined to see Peter “in bad form,” Hook runs from the
fight and fires the powder magazine. As Peter advances upon him,
Hook jumps overboard. Unbeknownst to him, the crocodile is in the
water, and Hook dies after it attacks him. Soon after, Wendy puts
the boys to bed, except for Peter, who paces the deck before falling
asleep. Wendy holds Peter—experiencing “one of his dreams”—in
her arms as he cries.

Chapter 16: The Return Home

The lost boys now sail the pirate ship, with Peter as their captain. While the
ship is on its way to the Darlings’ house, the narrator assesses how Mrs.
Darling will react when her children return.

Back at the Darling house, the nursery remains unchanged, except that Mr.
Darling has moved Nana’s kennel, believing that his decision to chain Nana
up outside led to the children’s disappearance. Mrs. Darling sleeps forlornly
in a rocking chair in the night-nursery; unbeknownst to her, the children are
on their way home, and only two miles away. As Mr. Darling arrives back
home from work, she wakes from a dream in which her children return.
While in Nana’s kennel, Mr. Darling asks Mrs. Darling to play a song on the
piano for him to fall asleep to; when he asks her to close the window, she
reminds him that they always have to leave the window open for when the
children return.
After Mrs. Darling leaves the night nursery, Peter and Tinker Bell fly through
the window. Peter’s plan is to bar the window so that Wendy will believe that
her mother has shut them out. Peter “peeps into” the day nursery to see
Mrs. Darling playing the piano. As Mrs. Darling begins to cry, Peter first
seems frustrated that Wendy’s mother does not understand that Wendy is
now his; however, feeling as if “she were inside him, knocking,” he unbars
the window. Before flying away, he says to Tinker Bell, “we don’t want any
silly mothers.”

Wendy, John, and Michael arrive at their home to find the window open.
While Michael only vaguely remembers their nursery, Wendy and John
excitedly remind him that they are home. The children see the kennel with
their father inside of it, and soon after, they hear their mother’s piano in the
other room. Rather than startle her with their return, Wendy reasons that
they should get into their beds, so that when their mother comes in the
morning, it will seem as if they had never left. However, because Mrs.
Darling has become so used to seeing the children sleeping in her dreams,
she does not react to seeing them in their beds. Alarmed that their mother
may have forgotten them, each of the children springs up from bed to
address her, but Mrs. Darling still believes she is dreaming when she hears
their voices. The children then run to their mother, who ecstatically calls out
to Mr. Darling. While the reunited family embraces, Peter watches from
outside the window, seeing “the one joy from which he must be for ever
barred.”

Chapter 17: When Wendy Grew Up

While the Darlings are reunited, the boys wait outside the house. When the
boys meet Mrs. Darling, she agrees to take care of them. Mr. Darling is more
hesitant, explaining that he does not want to be treated like “a cypher in his
own house.” The boys reassure him that they do not believe he is a cypher,
which makes Mr. Darling feel “absurdly gratified.”

Wendy approaches Peter as he grazes the window outside, and invites him
in. Mrs. Darling introduces herself to Peter and tells him that she has
adopted all of the other boys and would like to adopt him too. When she
confirms to Peter that he would grow into a man under her care, he
stubbornly refuses her offer. Mrs. Darling asks where Peter will go, and he
tells her that he will live in Wendy’s house in Neverland with Tinker Bell. He
wants Wendy to come with him, but when Wendy asks Mrs. Darling if she
can, Mrs. Darling tells her, “I have got you home again, and I mean to keep
you.” Mrs. Darling offers a solution, however: Wendy can visit Peter for one
week a year to do his “spring cleaning.” Before he leaves, Wendy has Peter
promise that he will not forget her before spring comes.

Peter arrives in the spring for Wendy’s annual visit to Neverland. Because of
Peter’s lapsed perception of time, it feels to him as if no time has passed
since he last saw her. When she asks him about Tinker Bell, he claims not to
remember her, mentioning that he “expect[s] she is no more,” since fairies
do not live long. However, when Peter does not return the next year, Michael
suggests that perhaps Peter Pan is not real after all, although Peter does
come back the following year—for the final time— without realizing that two
years have actually passed.

Wendy and the boys grow into adults. Wendy marries and has a daughter
named Jane, and Mrs. Darling and Nana have since passed away. Now living
in the same house that she grew up in, Wendy tells Jane stories of her
adventures with Peter Pan. Jane asks her mother why she can no longer fly,
and Wendy responds that it is because she has grown up, and “only the gay
and innocent and heartless” are able to fly. Wendy then tells Jane the story
of when Peter Pan flew into their window and lost his shadow; Jane, who is
already familiar with the story, points out details that her mother misses. As
Wendy continues the story, Jane asks her what the last words that Peter
spoke to her were. Wendy tells Jane that he told her to “always be waiting
for [him]” but that he eventually forgot about her. Soon after, Jane asks
Wendy what Peter’s crow sounds like, and after surprising Wendy with her
own imitation, she tells her mother that she sometimes hears Peter’s crow in
her dreams.

Suddenly, Peter flies through the window, startling Wendy. He looks the
same as she remembers him, and without fully realizing how much time has
passed since he last came to see her, Peter confirms that he is there to fly
with her to Neverland for spring cleaning. Wendy tells Peter that she can no
longer fly and, to his dismay, turns on the light so that he can see that she
is now much older. When Peter cries that she promised not to grow up,
Wendy assures him that she could not help it. After Wendy tells him that it is
her daughter sleeping in the nearby bed, he sobs inconsolably on the floor,
which wakes Jane. Jane and Peter speak, with Peter telling Jane that he has
come to take “his mother” with him back to Neverland. When he tells her
this, Jane claims that she knows the true reason why he is there and says
that she has been waiting for him. Excited by Jane’s resemblance to Wendy,
Peter exclaims that Jane is his mother. As Peter says goodbye to Wendy,
Jane rises in the air with him toward the window, telling her mother that it is
time for her to fly with Peter to Neverland to do his spring cleaning.
Wendy allows Jane to go, watching as she and Peter fly away into the starry
night sky. As the book comes to a close, the narrator reveals that the
generations of Darling children to come after Wendy—including Jane’s
daughter, Margaret—continue to visit Peter in Neverland.