Peter Weir directs this Australian mystery drama based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. On Valentine's Day in 1900, a group of students and teachers from a private girls' school leave for a picnic at Hanging Rock. Four of the girls decide to explore the rocks and an unseen force sends everyone present to sleep.

When they wake, three students and one teacher have disappeared. One girl is later found unconscious but alive, but the others are never seen again. As people search for the missing and for answers, parents begin to withdraw their children from the school and further tragedies follow.