Sur le quai de la gare, Matthew attend l'orphelin qui les aidera, sa soeur Marilla et lui, sur leur ferme. Mais c'est une rouquine aux yeux pétillants qui se présente... Extrêmement attachante, Anne va rapidement séduire son entourage par son courage, sa détermination et sa débrouillardise. S'amuser de la magie des mots, rire de ses propres défauts (ah, ces cheveux roux !), s'émerveiller face à la nature... Voici un roman feelgood inoubliable, plein de malice.

Anne Shirley is an eleven-year-old orphan who has hung on determinedly to an optimistic spirit and a wildly creative imagination through her early deprivations. She erupts into the lives of aging brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a girl instead of the boy they had sent for. Thus begins a story of transformation for all three; indeed the whole rural community of Avonlea comes under Anne's influence in some way. We see her grow from a girl to a young woman of sixteen, making her mistakes, and not always learning from them. Intelligent, hot-headed as her own red hair, unwilling to take a moral truth as read until she works it out for herself, she must also face grief and loss and learn the true meaning of love.