Young Duncan McHugh blames himself for his mother's poverty and depression. After an embarrassing incident at school, Emily befriends Duncan and brings him to New Moon. But when Aunt Elizabeth finds out who he is she sends him packing. His mother Alma and Aunt Elizabeth had both been in love with the same man, but he married Alma. Emily, Ilse, Perry and Teddy also defy an order not to go into town to watch the hanging of a murderer.

No one knows what happened to Laura Murray and Emily and Ilse want to find out. In order to do that, they go to see Ada Pickett, who tells them they are too young to understand the truth. Not wanting to listen to that advice, the girls dress up as older women and through a twist of events they see three different fates for Laura through their 90 year old eyes. They only question left unanswered: Which one is true?

Oliver, Emily's cousin, announces that New Moon actually belongs to his father. His girlfriend Maida is pregnant and loses her job and is left penniless. Emily, Ilse, Perry and Teddy, get her settled in the Disappointed House and end up helping to deliver her baby. Maida leaves town, and Oliver takes responsibility for his child.

Emily is raised by her father who encourages her to always follow her heart and dreams. But when her father dies leaving Emily all alone she has to be raised by one of her relatives, none of which want her. She hides under the table as they draw lots to see who will have to raise her. Aunt Elizabeth is drawn and Emily is sent to live with her, Aunt Laura and Cousin Jimmy at New Moon.

Emily decides to find out the truth about Ilse's mother. Cousin Jimmy and Perry, along with Ilse, break into a warehouse trying to find out if she sailed away or stayed in Blair Water. During a faver the truth is finally reveled.

Aunt Elizabeth find Emily's treasured 'Letter Bills' hidden in the attic. Laura announces her engagement to the rest of New Moon.

New Moon suffers tragedy with the death of Aunt Elizabeth who went missing at sea. The family then discovers that Elizabeth had borrowed money from Scottish relatives and that New Moon now belongs to them.

Perry returns to Blair Water only to be leaving shortly to fight in the Boer War. Other strange occurances are also going on with a love letter finding its way to Cousin Jimmy and a stranger coming to town.

Still recovering from the loss of Elizabeth the family begins to fall apart in some ways. Jimmy confesses about how much he did love Elizabeth, and while trying to hide from her own fears, Laura becomes addicted to laudanum. Emily tries her best to convince the Scottish relatives that she will give them everything she owns in exchange for New Moon, only to receive a reply saying the they are coming to P.E.I. to claim it.

One of the more hard to believe stories, this episode focuses on Perry and his life. His mother was sent to prison for murdering her husband ten years previous with an axe. Perry lived through the torments at school but he had long since forgotten about his mother. But Aunt Thom plans to break his mother out of jail and he has to help.

Emily moves to New Moon and Aunt Elizabeth forbids her to read or write fiction. Pandora, Emily's cat, is left on the side of the road by Aunt Elizabeth. After finding some old 'Letter Bills' in the attic, Emily uses the back of them to write letters to her father.

Emily discovers the ""Disappointed House"" which looks out over the seashore. She also gets a surprise when Teddy kisses her. A carpenter was building it for his wife-to-be when she called off the wedding days before it was set to take place. Both now dead, Emily must help the ghosts to see the truth so that they can finally be together. In the process revealing one of Aunt Laura's secrets. Emily also meets Perry Miller, who becomes the new New Moon chore boy.

As Emily and Ilse continue to grow older, the adults are faced with some questions that the girls will stop at nothing to get answers for: The facts of life. Meanwhile, Ilse's father, Dr Burnley has accepted a position at Massachusetts' General Hospital. Not wanting to leave, Ilse and Emily plan to run away only to have Uncle Malcolm ruin it by getting ill to the point he is close to death. Dr Burnley saves the day and begins to redeem himself in the eyes of Blair Water residents.

With her father's wedding approaching fast, Ilse is resenting the fact that she will have a step-mother that isn't Laura. She isn't about to let her father forget the fact that Laura and Iris are two different people.

The family is whole again when Jimmy returns home. Laura still wants a divorce but Ian Bowles returns and he now owns a share of New Moon. Emily comes up with the idea to marry in order to pay for Aunt Laura's divorce so she can retain rights to the farm. She tries to become a mail order bride. While she is writing it Teddy arrives, at first she ignores him, but when he climbs up to her window they go outside to talk.

Miss Brownell leaves her post as teacher and marries the school inspector. Her replacement is Mr Carpenter, a once university professor. He encourages the children to find their own talents, the only problem is that he drinks. Emily, Perry, Cousin Jimmy and Aunt Laura have to get Mr Carpenter cleaned up for his final evaluation after he staggers to New Moon drunk.

When a racoon savages Emily's cat Pandora, Aunt Laura takes the cat to Dr Burnley where they share a bitter-sweet moment. When Ian Bowles asks Laura to marry him, she says yes, but not with her whole heart.

Jack is still trying to make a go of his fox hunting business and talks Cousin Jimmy into being a partner after he doesn't know how else to pay for Emily's fees; not to mention that Aunt Laura is pregnant. While the fox business turns out to be very profitable, the dreams of being rich get Emily's imagaination going into overdrive meaning a hard lesson to learn.

The attention of this episode is based on that old faithful story of love. The girls desperately want to ensure that marry and pray to St. Agnes for help. However, being the age they are, it is Cousin Jimmy who gets the answer when he falls for Eve Kinch. From a poor family, they seek shelter at New Moon. All goes well between the two until Eve's father, Abner finds out and loses his temper. Then the revelation comes, Eve is pregnant.

Despite disappoval from Eve's father, Abner, Jimmy plans to give Eve everything that she wants. Emily causes more problems when she gets the idea Eve is a Saint and wants it is be official by getting people to sign a petition. Abner is determined to keep the two lovers apart and finds Jimmy and Eve when they secretly rendezvous. After a struggle Abner Kinch is dead. One question remains, who killed him: Eve or Jimmy? Jimmy risks everything for the woman he loves…

Emily is feeling as happy as can be and has been writing for weeks and sending her work off. As she is waiting Rhoda takes off with Emily's mail before she gets a chance to see it. She does this for a while as Emily is receiving acceptance letter and money cheques from a New York publisher Thelonius Grand. Her plans goes astray when the publisher days that he is coming to the island to meet Emily. It all comes out in the end although Rhoda nearly pulls off the scam only to have Emily give her a gift. Ian also leaves New Moon and is believed to have committed suicide. He gave his rights up to Laura for New Moon and she is left to raise Margaux's son.

Emily is horrified when Aunt Elizabeth informs her that she must attend school. After a dreadful first day of being teased by the other students and meeting the mean teacher Miss Brownell, she meets Ilse Burnley and they become friends.

While searching through the attic Emily comes across her mother's, Juliet, doll. Aunt Laura restores it for Emily. Then Aunt Laura meets Ian Bowles and falls in love with him...until she finds out the truth about him which sends her back home in tears.

Vacinnation is what eventuates from this episode after Malcolm is put under quarantine for small pox. As always, no one listend to Dr Burnley's advise and the children get Malcolm off the ship concealed in a coffin. However fear takes hold when they realise that Malcolm bought a boy of six, Robbie Burns with him as well whose mother died on the ship. The community won't accept Robbie, who is only six, but black and Emily's efforts to make him feel welcome fail. Vaccination begins but then Malcolm falls ill…

While her friends all head off for Shrewsbury Emily is left behind in Blair Water because her Auth Ruth refuses to have Emily stay with her. Bitterely disappointed, Laura tries to cheer her up by telling Emily that she has left Ian for good. An ally of sorts then comes to Emily's help and her future takes a turn for the good, but things aren't so good for Laura who discovers something unexpected.