Anne's imagination doesn't fade when reality crashes into it, it transforms into something sharper, stranger, more honest. The show spends fifty episodes watching a girl learn that being yourself and being sensible aren't opposites, they're the same thing eventually. By the end you're not watching a story about an orphan anymore; you're watching proof that a person can change themselves while staying completely themselves.

Anne Shirley is an eleven-year-old orphan with a huge imagination and a quick temper. She is sent to the Cuthbert home in Avonlea, where the elderly Marilla and Matthew had hoped for a boy to help with the farm work, and they are surprised to find a girl instead. Adapted from L. M. Montgomery's classic novel, this drama traces Anne from age eleven to seventeen as she makes friends, attends school and studies hard. Along the way she learns that a dreamer sometimes has to be sensible too, while her distinctive personality draws in and changes the people around her. As she grows older, she meets new people and parts from others, and a difficult moment eventually forces her to make a major decision about her future.