Young "Sara" (Shirley Temple) is the apple of her military father's eye. When he (Ian Hunter) is sent abroad to fight in the Boer war, she is left at a posh boarding school run by the pernickety "Miss Minchin" (Mary Nash). Initially, this all goes swimmingly until news reaches them that her father has been killed at the siege of Mafeking and she, now penniless, has to serve as a glorified scullery...