She is largely content to remain on the fringes of their social life but exerts a powerful influence over their emotional lives and family relations.

Polly Milton, a bright 14-year-old country girl, visits her friend Fanny Shaw and her wealthy family in Boston, Massachusetts for the first time.

Polly is overwhelmed by the splendor of the Shaws' household and their urbanized, fashionable lifestyles, expensive clothes and other habits she has never been exposed to, and, for the most part, dislikes.

Despite feeling odd and out of place, and amid the new fashions and the constant demands of the Shaws, Polly keeps on being kind to the Shaw family, and eventually, her warmth, support, and kindness eventually win the hearts of all the family members, and her old-fashioned ways teach them a lesson they will never forget.

Polly grows closer to Fanny and creates strong bonds with Tom and his younger sister, Maud.

However, their paths cross, and when Mr. Sydney offers to walk Polly home, she reluctantly turns him down, driving a rift between the two.

As the Shaws' lavish lives become laced with poverty, Polly guides them to the realization that wholesome family life is the only thing they will ever need, not money or decoration.

After Trix calls off their engagement, Tom procures a job out West with Polly's brother Ned, and heads off to help his family and compensate for all the money he wasted.

Throughout the year he is gone, Tom writes Polly letters telling them about a girl named Maria Bailey he and Ned have met.