The hook in The Secret Garden, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is the mystery surrounding the locked garden and the transformation of the protagonist, Mary Lennox, from a spoiled and unhappy child to a caring and curious one. The initial premise of the story is that Mary is sent to live with her uncle in an old mansion in England after her parents die. She is unhappy and isolated until she discovers a key to a secret garden and befriends a young boy named Dickon. The reader is drawn in by the question of why the garden is locked and what will happen when Mary unlocks it, as well as by the gradual development of Mary's character as she becomes more connected to nature and the people around her.