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Upon the death of her father, Pollyanna is sent to live with her Aunt Polly, who - as she sees it - is doing her duty by her estranged dead sister's child. Pollyanna meets all sorts of new people, many of them worn down by their own challenging lives, and some of them emotionally distant as a result of lost lovers.
She manages to transform not only her aunt but many other townspeople with the 'Glad Game' her father taught her. Always look for the silver lining in every cloud and you'll be...

The lawyer stirred restlessly and pondered. -But, surely, my dear, isn't there some relative, somewhere?- he demanded. -How about your mother's people?- Billy shook her head. Her eyes filled again with tears. -There was only Aunt Ella, ever, that I knew anything about. She and mother were the only children there were, and mother died when I was a year old, you know.- -But your father's people?- -It's even worse there. He was an only child and an orphan when mother married him. He died when I was but six months old. After that there was only mother and Aunt Ella, then Aunt Ella alone; and...

-Eh?- Arkwright laughed grimly. -Perhaps you thought of it yourself, then-I'll admit you're capable of it, - he nodded, reaching for a cigar. -But it so happens you hit upon my family's favorite name for me.- -Mary Jane You mean they actually call you that?- -Yes, - bowed the big fellow, calmly, as he struck a light. -Appropriate -don't you think?- Calderwell did not answer. He thought he could not. -Well, silence gives consent, they say, - laughed the other.

Mrs. Carew stirred irritably. -I'm sure I don't see why not, - she fenced. Della Wetherby shook her head. -Yes, you do, dear. You know I'm entirely out of sympathy with it all: the gloom, the lack of aim, the insistence on misery and bitterness.- -But I AM miserable and bitter.- -You ought not to be.- -Why not? What have I to make me otherwise?- Della Wetherby gave an impatient gesture.

Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature, with the title character's name becoming a popular term for someone with the same very optimistic outlook. Also, the subconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle. The book was such a success that Porter soon produced a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up (1915). Eleven more Pollyanna sequels, known as "Glad Books," were later published, most of them written by Elizabeth Borton or Harriet Lummis Smith. Further sequels followed, including...