The unusual episode in chapter 37 involving a lion was based on a similar incident Montgomery had been aware of that had occurred in Atlantic Canada several years before, which she detailed in a letter to GB MacMillan on February 23, 1938.

Jane believes her father to be dead, but is eventually told he is alive and living far away on Prince Edward Island, her birthplace.

Jane's only friend is Josephine Turner, Jody for short, an orphan who lives and works as a servant at the boardinghouse next door.

Upon arriving at the island, Jane meets her Aunt Irene (her father's sister) and takes an instant dislike to her.

Upon returning, she has many adventures, including finding a lion that had escaped from a circus and fearlessly locking it up in a barn.

When Jody writes to say that she is about to be sent to an orphanage, Jane talks to the Titus ladies, a pair of sisters who want to adopt a child.

She uses her pocket-money to buy a train ticket, endures a sleepless journey of two days, then walks three miles from the station in the cold and wet to the house on Lantern Hill.

and "Her relationship with her father, a writer whose waywardness is the opposite of the old world of her grandmother, is genuinely delightful to watch unfold.