[2] In 1885, Captain Ralph Crewe, a wealthy English widower living in British-ruled India, enrolls his eight-year-old daughter Sara at the Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London.

She excels in her studies and is loved deeply by her classmates and friends, but earns the hatred of class representative Lavinia Herbert and the grudge of the headmistress Miss Minchin.

On her ninth birthday, Sara learns of her father's death and bankruptcy from an infuriated Miss Minchin, who decides to hire the orphaned girl as an unpaid maid in the school.

Princess Sara, directed by Fumio Kurokawa and produced by Nippon Animation, being the eleventh entry in the World Masterpiece Theater, premiered in Japan on January 6, 1985, and concluded on December 29, 1985, after 46 episodes on Fuji TV.

[6] A Filipino television drama adaptation of the series, produced by ABS-CBN, aired from November 12 to December 21, 2007 on the Primetime Bida block.