At Iolani Palace, Princess Kaiulani and the rest of the royal family prepare for a ceremony that night to light Honolulu with only electricity.

Now in England, Ka'iulani struggles to fit in as her Polynesian heritage makes her a target of racism and offensive stereotypes from the Europeans whom she meets.

But one day her father returns from Hawaii after several years and, to her shock, informs her that her uncle, King Kalakaua, had died shortly after being forced to sign the new constitution by Thurston and Sanford B. Dole.

He then informs her that a failed native rebellion against the new constitution gave Thurston a reason to arrest and depose Queen Liliuokalani, overthrowing the monarchy and declaring Hawai'i a republic.

At a lunch with the President, Ka'iulani charms him and convinces him to actively oppose the overthrow, which he does by refusing to annex Hawaii as an American territory.

Shortly after her return, she is visited by Sanford B. Dole, who explains that three U.S. legal commissioners are arriving, and that he and Thurston would like the Princess to host a small dinner for them.

At the dinner, Ka'iulani charms her visitors before surprising Thurston by publicly petitioning for an amendment to the annexation treaty to guarantee universal suffrage and voting rights to all Native Hawaiians.

The website's critics consensus reads: "A middling biopic about an important figure in Hawaiian history, Princess Kaiulani looks and feels like a TV movie of the week and offers about as much insight.