An elderly bachelor and his spinster sister adopt an orphan and are mistakenly sent a girl instead of a boy. The orphan, Anne, remains with the couple, moves from one mishap to another, succeeds academically, and finds love.

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her; Anne, now a young woman, has become a teacher and dreams of meeting her ideal man; After a series of disappointments, Anne and her husband Gilbert return to Avonlea in search of happiness, but soon face the challenges of war when newly enlisted...