A method and apparatus for searching, browsing and summarizing moving image data using the fidelity of a tree-structured moving image hierarchy, which can partition or divide the moving image data into predetermined units, extract a key frame or representative frame from each of the partitioned or divided units, create a tree-structured key frame hierarchy on the basis of the extracted key frames, store a fidelity value of each of the key frames, which is a sub-tree information representative degree of each key frame, at an edge between adjacent ones of the key frames, and effectively and efficiently search, browse and summarize the moving image data using the stored fidelity values. Therefore, a query image or video clip desired by a user can more rapidly and accurately be searched for.