Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess follows Sara Crewe, whose wealthy father places her at Miss Minchin's London boarding school as he returns to India. Sara's imagination, education, and generosity make her both admired and resented. When news arrives that her father has died and his fortune appears lost, Miss Minchin removes Sara from the schoolroom and forces her to work as a servant in the attic.
Poverty changes Sara's circumstances but not her effort to treat other people with dignity. Friendship with the scullery maid Becky, care for younger pupils, and stories invented in the cold attic become ways of preserving a self that Miss Minchin tries to reduce to social rank. Events in the neighboring house gradually introduce another thread connected to India and to the uncertainty surrounding Captain Crewe's affairs.
The novel can be read as a test of imagination under material hardship, without claiming that imagination erases hunger. Notice the contrast between performed status and chosen conduct: who acts like a princess when wealth is absent? This summary covers Sara's fall in fortune and life in the attic, but leaves the neighboring search, the restoration of her circumstances, and Miss Minchin's final response undisclosed.
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