Sophie（苏菲）, a hatter, is a responsible and beautiful 18-year-old girl, though she does not perceive herself as such, who runs her late father's hat shop. When on her way to the bakery to visit her sister, Lettie, she encounters by chance the mysterious wizard Howl（霍尔）, who takes a liking to her. This arouses the ire of the Witch of the Waste, who has been seeking Howl's heart for herself. Later that night, she comes to the hat shop and curses Sophie, transforming her into an old woman. As the curse prevents her from telling anyone of her condition, Sophie decides to run away. Along the way, she befriends a sentient scarecrow that she names Turnip Head, who eventually leads her to Howl's castle.
Once inside, Sophie meets the fire demon Calcifer（卡西法）, who powers the castle and recognizes that Sophie has been cursed. Calcifer offers to break the curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the spell between him and Howl, which keeps Calcifer bound to the house. The next morning, Markl, Howl's young apprentice, comes downstairs and begins to create potions and spells for Howl's patrons and is perplexed by Sophie's presence, but doesn't try to throw her out and, in the course of the story, comes to love her like an older sister. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that she is the castle's new cleaning lady, hired by Calcifer because he was sick of how dirty the castle was. As she adjusts to life in the castle, she discovers that the front door is a magic portal leading to several places.
Currently, the land Sophie is living in is caught up in the beginning of a war with its neighbour following the mysterious disappearance of the other realm's Crown Prince Justin, and slowly the war begins to creep into Sophie's country itself. Howl receives summons from the King, who orders his various assumed identities to fight in the war. However, Howl fears Madame Suliman（萨丽漫）, the royal court's magician and his former mentor, and comes up with an idea to send Sophie, with the protection of a magic ring and Howl himself in disguise, as his mother to announce what a coward he is and that he would ' be of no use'. At the palace, Sophie runs into Suliman’s asthmatic dog, Heen, who she originally thinks is Howl undercover. She also meets the Witch of the Waste, who had previously been expelled from the court many years ago and now seeks to regain the royal house's patronage; instead, Wizard Suliman punishes the Witch by draining all of her power, causing her to regress into a harmless old woman, with little memories of her past actions, only remembering her obsession with Howl. Suliman tells Sophie that Howl will meet the same fate if he does not contribute to the war. As Sophie vehemently protests these measures, the Witch's spell temporarily weakens due to the love in her words. Suliman realizes Sophie's true relation to Howl and her feelings towards him and allowing the witch one small victory over Howl, she knows of someone he cares about. Howl then arrives to rescue Sophie, dressed up as the King, but his cover is blown when the real King enters, with the Witch and Heen tagging along. The magic ring Howl gave Sophie guides her to Calcifer, but Suliman begins tracking her to get to Howl.
Sophie learns that Howl transforms into a bird-like creature to interfere in the war, but each transformation makes it more difficult for him to return to human form (as it is made apparent that all wizards who would perform such a change could lose themselves to madness). Howl shows his appreciation for her by transforming the castle so that it can lead to Sophie's old home as well as Howl's childhood residence, which he gives to Sophie as a gift. During their walk together, Sophie changes back and forth between her old and young selves until she temporarily stops at her young self albeit with silver hair. Sophie fears he's preparing to leave them, because he knows his remaining time as a human is limited. A bomber ship flies over Howl's home and he causes it to malfunction. However, he is then forced to leave Sophie back in the castle while he returns to interfering in the war. Soon after, Sophie's mother visits the house and somehow recognizes Sophie, despite her old appearance. They then have a happy reunion. However, Sophie's mother is actually under Suliman's threats and leaves behind a bag containing a "peeping bug" under her orders. The former Witch of the Waste discovers it and promptly destroys the bug by tossing it into Calcifer. Unfortunately, Calcifer gets sick after eating the bug, rendering him unable to protect the castle from being discovered when Markl opens the windows to air out the Witch's cigar smoke.
A few hours later, the city is carpet-bombed by enemy aircraft while Suliman's henchmen invade the hat shop. After arriving in the nick of time and protecting the hat shop from the bombing, Howl draws the guards away, while Sophie and Calcifer bring the castle to the Wastes. Sophie pulls Calcifer out of the castle to destroy the magic and cut off all ties to the city, so that Howl would not be continually forced to defend them (During this time, Sophie has continuously stayed young). They replace Calcifer in the castle's remains and create a smaller version of the moving machine so they can rescue Howl. Unfortunately, the Witch discovers Howl's heart in Calcifer's flames (after Calcifer explains that he needs a part of someone for assistance in powerful magic) and grabs it. To save her from burning, Sophie douses her and Calcifer with water. With Califer extinguished, what is left of the castle breaks apart and Sophie and Heen are thrown over a cliff and separated from Markl and the Witch, with the now barely glowing Calcifer still in her hands.
Sophie recovers in tears, believing that she has killed both Calcifer and Howl, as their lives are interconnected. As she is sobbing, Howl's ring points to the remains of Howl's castle door, but Sophie doesn't see it until Heen alerts her; she walks through it, with Heen reluctantly following and finds herself in Howl's past, where she sees Calcifer being caught by a young Howl as a falling star. Howl and Calcifer make a contract with each other; Howl swallows Calcifer, who then emerges from his chest with Howl's heart as well. Sophie is pulled back into present time, but before leaving, she yells to Howl and Calcifer that she knows how to help them and they should find and wait for her in the future. They watch in surprise as she is swallowed up by the ground, with a little dog following her. Lost in time and space and falling to the earth, Sophie is guided back to the present by Heen, who keeps urging her to hurry, before the passageway collapses.
Back in the present, Sophie finds Howl, having now lost his human consciousness in bird form, and realizes that he has been waiting for her all along. When they return to the others Howl becomes human again and Sophie pleads with the Witch to give back Howl's heart, which she puts back in his chest after Calcifer agrees to it. Although Howl has not yet regained consciousness Calcifer returns to his original form and flies away. With Calcifer gone completely, the remains of the castle with everyone still atop, slides down the cliffs and Turnip Head is forced to almost sacrifice himself to stop the fall. As a result of his brave actions, Sophie gives him a kiss, transforming him back into the missing Prince Justin, who had been cursed by a witch until he could receive a kiss from his true love.
By now, Sophie has fully transformed back to her youthful self (with the exception of her silver hair) and Howl recovers and sits up, immediately feeling the new burden of his restored heart, though glad to see Sophie again and comments on her 'starlight' hair. Though he has come to love Sophie as well, Prince Justin realizes that her love is for Howl and leaves to put an end to the war, as does Suliman, who has been spying on the group using Heen. Calcifer returns, realizing that he could not bear to leave his friends. Howl, Sophie, and the others are later seen aboard a new, flying castle powered by Calcifer of his own free will, high above the bomber planes now returning home from the end of the war. The film ends with Markl and Heen playing on a grassy area of the castle, overlooked by Calcifer, with the former Witch of the Wastes watching from a chair like a kindly grandmother, while Howl and Sophie share a kiss on a balcony at the head of the flying castle.
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