The scene is set in London, during the Great Depression.

Michael Banks lives in his childhood

home with his three children, John, Annabel and Georgie, after the death of his wife, Kate, a year
earlier. Michael has taken a loan from his employer, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and is three
months behind on payments. Wilkins, the bank's corrupt new chairman, sends associates to
warn him that his house will be repossessed if the loan is not repaid in full by Friday. Michael and
his sister Jane recall that their father left them shares in the bank that should cover the loan, and
they search the house for the share certificate. During the search, Michael finds his childhood
kite and disposes of it.
The children visit a local park and Georgie, who has found the kite, flies it. Mary Poppins
descends from the sky with the kite in her hand. She takes the children home and announces
that she will take charge of them as their nanny. She draws a bath for the three children, leading
to underwater adventures ("Can You Imagine That?").
Michael visits the bank seeking proof of his shares, but Wilkins denies that there are any records
before covertly destroying the page from the official ledger. Annabel and John decide to sell their
mother's 'priceless' bowl to pay off the debt. Georgie tries to stop them, and the bowl becomes
damaged while the three fight over it. Jack, a lamplighter, greets Mary Poppins and joins her and
the children on a trip into the scene decorating the bowl. During their visit to the Royal Doulton
Music Hall ("A Cover is Not the Book"), Georgie is kidnapped by a talking wolf, weasel, and
badger that are repossessing their belongings, and Annabel and John set out to rescue him.
They do so successfully, fall off the edge of the bowl, and wake in their beds. Realizing they are
hurting after the loss of their mother, Mary sings them a lullaby ("The Place Where Lost Things
Go").
The children visit Mary Poppins's cousin Topsy, hoping to get the bowl mended ("Turning Turtle")
and learn that it has little monetary value. They take Michael's briefcase to him at the bank,
where they overhear Wilkins discussing the planned repossession of their house. Believing that
he and his associates are the same animal gang who kidnapped him, Georgie interrupts the
meeting. Michael is angry with the children for putting the house and his job at risk. Mary Poppins
takes the children home, guided by Jack and his fellow lamplighters who teach the children their
rhyming slang ("Trip A Little Light Fantastic"). The children comfort a despairing Michael, and the
four reconcile.
As midnight on Friday approaches, the Bankses prepare to move out of their house. While
examining his old kite, Michael discovers that Georgie had used the missing share certificate to
mend it. Jane and Michael rush to the bank while Mary Poppins and the children go with Jack
and the lamplighters to Big Ben to 'turn back time'. After scaling the clock tower, they turn the
clock back five minutes, giving Jane and Michael just enough time to reach the bank. Wilkins,
however, will not accept the certificate as part of it is still missing. Wilkins's elderly uncle and the
bank's previous chairman, Mr. Dawes Jr., arrives and sacks Wilkins on the spot for his corrupt
business practices. He reveals that Michael has plenty of assets to cover the loan, namely the
judiciously invested tuppence he had deposited with the bank many years earlier.
The next day, the Bankses visit the park, where a fair is in full swing. They purchase balloons
that carry them into the air, where they are joined by Jack and many others ("Nowhere to Go but
Up"). On their return home, Mary Poppins announces that it is time for her to leave. Jane and
Michael thank her as her umbrella carries her back up into the sky and away.