Pollyanna is put into a small, hot attic room by her aunt and her normally sunny disposition is tested but comes through in the end.

Pollyanna arrives in Vermont on a train.  Nancy and Timothy pick her up.

Tom tells Nancy what Miss Polly used to be like when she was younger.  Nancy tells Tom about Pollyanna.

Miss Polly, a strict and unhappy old maid, tells her new house maid Nancy that her niece is coming to live with her in Vermont.  She feels it is her unhappy “duty” to take care of her and to put her in the uncomfortable attic room.