In 1899, the young Sarah Crewe (Shirley Temple) is placed into an exclusive London boarding school by her widowed father, a wealthy British army officer about to embark for South Africa and fight in the second Boer war. Although she had previously spent all her life in India, Sarah adapts well to her new surroundings. However, things take a turn for the worse when her father is reported dead in battle and his South African financial holdings confiscated by the enemy, leaving her alone and penniless