Pirates Past Noon

On a rainy afternoon, seven-year-old Annie tells her older brother, Jack, that she has a feeling the mysterious M person will be at the magic tree house. Jack retrieves a gold medallion and a leather bookmark, both marked with an M that matches an engraving on the tree house floor. They head to the tree house in the Frog Creek woods and reminisce about their previous adventures to the time of dinosaurs, knights, and ancient Egypt. Annie then notices a book lying open, displaying a picture of a sunny beach, a parrot in a palm tree, and a ship at sea. She wishes they could go there. Instantly, a real parrot appears at the window and squawks, Too late! The tree house begins to spin, transporting them away.

The tree house lands in a palm tree on a tropical island that looks exactly like the picture in the book. The parrot, whom Annie had named Polly, flies toward the ocean, and the children follow her to the beach. As they play in the water, Jack notices the ship from the picture is sailing closer. He sees its flag is a black skull and crossbones. He grabs the book and confirms its title is Pirates of the Caribbean, reading that pirates raided ships in the area three hundred years ago. Annie spots three pirates rowing to shore. As they run for the tree house, Jack realizes he left the book on the sand and goes back for it. Just as he retrieves it, the pirates land on the beach and charge toward him.

The lead pirate, a man with a black beard and an eyepatch named Cap'n Bones, captures Jack. When Annie tries to intervene, she is also captured. Cap'n Bones orders his two men, Pinky and Stinky, to search the tree house for treasure. They find only books until Pinky discovers the gold medallion. Thrilled, Cap'n Bones demands to know where the rest of the treasure is and shows them a torn map for Kidd's treasure. The pirates cannot read, so Jack agrees to decipher the map after Cap'n Bones promises to free them once he has the treasure. He reads the clue aloud: The gold doth lie beneath the whale's eye. Unable to understand the riddle, Cap'n Bones orders his men to take Jack and Annie to the pirate ship. As they are rowed across shark-infested waters, Polly tries to fly to them but is forced back by strong winds.

On the pirate ship, Jack and Annie are locked in the captain's cabin. Jack consults the pirate book and learns about the famous pirate Captain Kidd, who buried treasure on a deserted island. Looking out the cabin window, Annie realizes the island is shaped like a giant whale. They identify the palm tree as the whale's spout and a large black rock on the shore as its eye, concluding the treasure must be buried under the rock. They plan to show the pirates the location and then escape to the tree house while the men are digging. Jack calls to Cap'n Bones, and the pirates take them back to the island as a storm begins to gather.

Back on the island, Cap'n Bones forces Pinky and Stinky to move the rock and dig while he holds Jack and Annie captive. He throws the gold medallion into the hole as an example of what they are looking for. As the storm intensifies, Polly reappears, squawking Go back! Frightened by the storm and the parrot's warning, Pinky and Stinky abandon their digging and flee to the rowboat. Cap'n Bones releases the children to chase after his men, and the three pirates row away. As rain pours down, Jack runs to the hole to retrieve the medallion, where the water has washed away enough sand to reveal a wooden treasure chest. Annie urges him to leave it and climb to the tree house. Polly then speaks in a clear, human-like voice, telling Jack to Go back. Convinced, Jack joins Annie in the tree house. She points to a picture of their hometown in their Pennsylvania book and wishes they were there.

The tree house returns safely to the Frog Creek woods. Polly flies inside and transforms into a beautiful old woman with white hair, who introduces herself as Morgan le Fay. She reveals she is the M person, an enchantress from Camelot and King Arthur's sister. Morgan explains she is a librarian who uses the magic tree house to collect books for the Camelot library. She confirms she was the pteranodon, knight, cat, and Polly, secretly helping them on their adventures, and explains that Annie's belief in magic and Jack's love of books allowed them to work the tree house's spell. Jack returns the gold medallion to Morgan. After she bids them farewell and the tree house vanishes, he is surprised to discover she has magically placed the medallion back in his pocket, which Annie interprets as a promise of her return. As they walk home, Jack realizes the beauty of the sunlit, rain-washed woods is a treasure in itself.