This is the story of orphaned Pollyanna and the 'glad game'. As soon as Pollyanna arrives in Beldingsville to live with her strict and dutiful maiden aunt, she begins to brighten up everybody's life. The 'glad game' she plays, of finding a silver lining in every cloud, transforms the sick, the lonely and the plain miserable "...until one day something so terrible happens that even Pollyanna doesn't know how to feel glad about it."