Mulan is a loveable, spirited girl who doesn't fit in with Chinese tradition because she has a bad habit of speaking her mind and following her heart, which gets her into a lot of trouble. However, being true to her heart also brings her victory in the end and honor to her family.
Mulan's parents send her to the matchmaker hoping that she will find a suitable husband, but through several mishaps she fails miserably and is told she will never bring her family honour. She realizes that when she is true to herself she breaks her family's heart. But she also realizes she can't hide who she is inside.
When the Huns attack China, her father, who is aged and crippled, is conscriptred into the Imperial Army. Mulan fears for her father's life and secretly steals his sword, his armor, his conscription order, disquises herself as a man, and takes his place.
She has a guardian dragon, Mushu, and a lucky Cricket, Cri-Kee who travel with her. Manshu is the lowliest of dragon guardians because he has failed to protect the ancestors of Mulan's family through the ages and because he wants to redeem his status as a worthy guardian dragon he deems it his duty to protect and guide Mulan and make her a war hero. He teaches her how to impersonate a man at boot camp. She first appears as a weakling but by using her ingenuity she eventually proves herself to the men by climbing a pole the other men could not climb.The captain of Mulan's military unit is Shang, who is the son of a General who is eventually killed by the Huns. Shang leads his troops into battle and confronts the Huns, but they are outnumbered. Mulan, through using her ingenuity again, saves the day by shooting the last canon to a precipice overhanging the Hun army and they are destroyed as an enormous avalanche wipes them out. Mulan is wounded in the side and thus her secret is revealed. She is disgraced and ostracised by Shang and left behind as the army heads for the Imperial City.
However, some of the Huns revive. Mulan races to tell Shang that the Huns are in the Imperial city but she has lost his trust. She doesn't give up however. The Huns capture the emperor and drag him as a hostage into his own palace. Again through her ingenuity--she shows the men how to climb columns to the roof of the palace in the same way she climed the pole much earlier in the story. She is eventually directly responsible for saving the emperor's life as well as his kingdom. She is given a great honor by being made a member of the emperor's council, as well as being given the sword of Shang's father, and the crest of the Emperor. She returns home to her father where he welcomes her with open arms.