Eleven-year-old Anne Shirley is an orphan girl in need of a family and the novel follows her adventures over the next five years. She may be scrawny and freckled with red hair but shes also loving and bright with imagination, smart, dutiful and hardworking.
When shes mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, elderly siblings who plan to adopt a young boy to help around their farm in Canadas Prince Edward Island, Anne faces the prospect of securing a home and a loving family if she can prove shes worth keeping.