Little Lady Fauntleroy

Little tomboy Emily is uprooted from her working class life to be raised as a “proper” countess. Before long, she turns the palace upside down and proves that there are other ways to be a “lady.”

Nine-year-old Emily lives happily with her widowed mother in a working-class neighborhood of late 19th-century New York. At home in the streets, the bright-eyed tomboy craves adventure and has no trouble asserting herself. For this is the dawn of feminism, when women everywhere are standing up for their rights. Emily's world is suddenly turned upside down when a distinguished European nobleman arrives one day and announces to Emily that she is the sole heiress of the wealthy Countess von Liebenfels zu Arlingen. The blue-blood demands that Emily be brought to her palace to be raised “properly” as a countess. A cold, imperious woman who strikes fear into the hearts of all around her, the Countess can barely muster up a smile for her granddaughter upon her arrival. But Emily only sees a lonely woman who secretly yearns to free herself from the iron corset of aristocratic do's and don'ts. With her infectious cheerfulness and innocent openness, Emily breathes warmth and life into the palace's stiff rituals, and shows the Countess that there are other ways of being a true “lady.” But just when the Countess realizes that Emily is exactly the fresh new blood that her ancient family needs, a con woman appears at the palace with her son, claiming that he, and not Emily, is the rightful heir – and she can prove it...