A Little Princess begins with seven-year-old Sara Crewe's journey from India.

A Little Princess begins with seven-year-old Sara Crewe's journey from India, where she has been raised by her father, to London, where she is to attend boarding school. Before bidding her farewell, her doting father gives her extravagant gifts including custom-made clothes and a beautiful doll, which she names Emily. The father and daughter say an emotional farewell before Captain Crewe returns to India. Sara desperately misses her father, but survives on the strength of her friendliness and active imagination. She tells exciting stories, which make her popular among her classmates, and she enjoys pretending that her doll, Emily, is capable of thinking and understanding her. Sara's new friends in this period include Ermengarde, a well-intentioned but rather dull classmate who looks up to her, and Lottie, the school's youngest student, who accepts Sara as a kind of surrogate mother. Moreover, Sara's extreme wealth gains her favor with the school's leadership. Miss Minchin, the headmistress, dislikes Sara but treats her well out of a materialistic desire for her family's money. Some students, such as Sara's rival Lavinia, envy her wealth, but Sara is constantly selfless and unspoiled. She goes out of her way to share food, toys, and resources with those who lack them, especially the mistreated scullery maid, a young girl named Becky. In fact, Sara imagines herself to be a princess who betters the lives of her subjects. By the time of her eleventh birthday, Sara is the school's most popular and academically advanced student. She expects to become even wealthier, since her father is planning to invest in lucrative diamond mines.