- Max, decked out in his wolf suit, creates a fort by tying bedsheets together and hammering nails into the wall.
- Next, he runs around the house, jumping and yelling, while chasing the family dog with a fork.
- Max's mother reaches the end of her rope. She calls Max a wild thing, and when Max sasses her, she sends him to bed without his supper.
- Max, at first angry, begins to imagine a forest growing in his room.
- Trees spring up from his bedposts, and vines cover the walls.
- Max cavorts around his jungle room, baring his wolf claws in the moonlight.
- He hops into a boat and sails across the ocean to "where the wild things are" (22).
- His first wild thing sighting startles him, but when confronted by a group of wild things gnashing their teeth and showing their claws, Max tames them with his unwavering stare.
- The wild things back down and declare Max their king.
- Max calls for the wild rumpus to start, and he and the wild things go crazy.
- Together, they bay at the moon, swing from the trees, and dance about until they're all tuckered out.
- With his wild energy spent, Max feels lonely and longs to be back at home.
- He smells good food and decides to give up being king of all wild things.
- The wild things beg him to stay, but Max says goodbye.
- He sails back across the ocean and back to his room, which no longer looks like a jungle.
- Max pushes off the hood of his wolf suit and smiles when he sees his dinner waiting for him, laid out nicely on a table by the window and still warm.