Rilla of Ingleside, an irrepressible 15-year-old, is the youngest daughter of Anne and Gilbert Blythe. She is excited about her first adult party and blissfully unaware of the chaos that the Western world is about to enter, being on the brink of the First World War. Her parents worry because Rilla seems not to have any ambition, is not interested in attending college, and is more concerned with having fun. Once the Continent descends into war, many of her playmates, brothers, and her sweetheart Ken Ford, enlist and end up fighting in Europe. As the war drags on, Rilla matures and does many great things for the community, while waiting for Ken to come back.

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels with Anne of Green Gables, an orphaned girl, mistakenly sent to a couple, who had intended to adopt a boy. Anne novels made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. Most of her novels were set in Prince Edward Island, and locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site.