At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley.

It is 1945 and Anne Shirley (Academy-award nominee and Golden Globe winner, Barbara Hershey) now a successful, middle-aged writer has returned to Prince Edward Island for an extended visit. On a whim, she agrees to write a play for a theatre producer. The play, she reasons, will keep her busy—at least busy enough to not go out of her mind with worry about her only son who has yet to return from the war overseas. But a long-hidden secret in the form of a letter from her errant father, discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables, provides a distraction of its own. As Anne struggles to complete the play, she delves into long-buried memories, reliving the troubled years before she arrived as an orphan at the Green Gables farmhouse. She is forced to confront the fact that she made up stories about her life; after her mother died and when her father deserted his young daughter. During that time, Young Anne (newcomer Hannah Endicott-Douglas), is taken into the care of a wealthy matriarch, Amelia Thomas (Academy-award winner Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter-in-law, Louisa (Rachel Blanchard), which changes her life forever.
Over the course of one remarkable summer, Anne Shirley discovers the astonishing truth about her father, the origins of her quest for "kindred spirits" and the roots of her brilliant, magical imagination.

一晃眼，安妮（梅根·佛洛斯 Megan Follows 饰）已经十八岁了，她选择留在家乡任教并且陪伴玛丽拉（科琳·杜赫斯特 Colleen Dewhurst 饰）。吉尔伯特（強納森·哥倫比 Jonathan Crombie 饰）依然深深的爱慕着安妮，并且渴望娶她为妻，可是对于安妮来说，吉尔伯特并非现阶段的最优选择，她总觉得会有更好的感情在未来等待着自己。
在老师的介绍下，安妮来到了位于国王港的一间私立女校里任教，伤心的吉尔伯特亦选择离开家乡继续深造。安妮通过自己的努力终于获得了学校里师生们的信赖，同时也捕获了一位富豪的心。但最终安妮还是回到了爱德华王子岛，此时吉尔伯特因为生病也返回家乡疗养。

专门为电视制作的伦理亲情片，拍得十分温馨感人，在加拿大爱德华王子岛实地拍摄的优美风光亦令本片生色不少，故事描述少女珍史都华随母亲回娘家的华厦居住，但一干亲友都瞧不起她们母女。珍妮因而郁郁寡欢，直至认识流浪女孩乔蒂才有所改观。不久，父亲安卓来信要求珍回岛上和他生活，珍只好挥别母亲回到偏僻的灯笼山庄。当她获悉父亲仍深爱母亲。而姑姑却积极撮合父亲另娶时，珍决定追查父母分手的原因，并极力挽回他们的婚姻。少女演员玛丽恩贝内特和饰演父母的山姆华特森、柔伊．柯威尔都有甚佳演出。