Miguel secretly loves music, but it is banned from his family because of his great-great-grandma. She hates music because her husband left to pursue his dream and never came back. Miguel wanted to sign up for a competition related to his favorite musician.

His family finds out that he loves music and discovers his guitar, which they smash. He runs away to the competition and searches for a guitar to borrow, but when no one lets him borrow one, he goes to his favorite musician’s grave, Ernesto, and steals his guitar to try and play it for the competition. Once he touches it, he is cursed for stealing from the dead. The only way to return to normal is with a family blessing before sunrise. He runs into Hector, who tries to tell him he can help, but only if Miguel puts his photo on the ofrenda. Miguel agrees. He runs away after his dead relatives find him.

Miguel sneaks into Ernesto’s mansion after the music contest and realizes that Hector and Ernesto once made music together, which was the reason for Hector’s death. Soon, Miguel realizes Coco is Hector’s daughter and that Hector is his great-great-grandfather. After they are rescued by Miguel’s family and he explains the truth about Hector, he and Imelda reunite. They reveal Ernesto’s real crimes, and he gets crushed by a big bell, mirroring his real death decades earlier. Hector’s photo was lost, but Imelda blesses him back to normal so he never forgets how much his family loves him. Once Miguel is back to normal, he rushes to Coco and sings a song that Hector wrote for her so she doesn’t forget him and to help Hector cross the bridge.