Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel
The film resumes the story of Anne Shirley, who at 16 had chosen to study for her college degree by correspondence in order to remain at Green Gables to help an aging Marilla, who has eyesight problems, look after the house and farm. Anne now holds a Teacher's Licence after completing the two-year post-secondary course at Charlottetown's Queens Academy in only one year.
Anne begins to teach at Avonlea School and has dreams of becoming a writer, but her story "Averil's Atonement" is rejected by a magazine. Leaving the post office one day, Anne runs into Gilbert Blythe, who tells her that her best friend Diana Barry is engaged to Fred Wright. Anne is initially bewildered by Diana's decision, calling it impulsive. Meanwhile, in the last two years, Marilla's eyesight has greatly improved. Having regained her independence, Marilla encourages Anne to resume her old ambition of attending college.
At the clambake celebrating Fred and Diana's engagement, Anne and Gilbert wander off to a bridge, where Gilbert proposes. Anne rejects his offer, convinced that their marriage would be unhappy and unsuccessful. She runs off.
At Diana's wedding, Anne sees Gilbert with a young woman named Christine Stuart. Gilbert tells Anne that he and Christine are just friends, then offers to wait for her if there is any hope of them getting together. Anne rejects him again, and Gilbert suspects that there is someone else, despite Anne's assertion there is no person she cares about more than him. Anne returns to Green Gables and decides to look into the job her former teacher Miss Muriel Stacey offered her. Eventually, Anne decides to take this job as an English teacher at Kingsport, Nova Scotia Ladies’ College in the hope that it will inspire her and give her something to write about.
Initially, Anne finds her new job to be difficult. A member of the local community — and member of the powerful Pringle family — had also tried for Anne's post and was rejected, causing resentment. However, Anne gradually earns the respect of her students, their families and her colleagues, including the severe and critical Katherine Brooke and the Pringle family. Anne organizes a play to raise money for the college, which is greatly appreciated. While teaching at the Ladies' College, Anne grows close to one student, Emmeline Harris, at whose house she is boarding along with the stern, controlling grandmother Harris and her repressed daughter Pauline who is a virtual prisoner in the house. Anne is able to convince the grandmother, a hypochondriac, to leave the house and go to a community picnic, and to let Pauline attend a friend's wedding overnight in another town, where she strikes up a romance. Her dream of being published is also finally achieved after she writes a series of short stories based on Avonlea inspired by a suggestion from Gilbert. Anne also succeeds in getting the spinster teacher Katherine Brooke to spend a badly-needed summer vacation at Avonlea, where she opens up her feelings to Anne.
Emmeline's widowed father Morgan Harris, a well-to-do traveling businessman, also proposes marriage to Anne, after Anne and Emmeline had visited his spacious house in Boston. Anne declines Morgan Harris' proposal and returns to Green Gables, where she learns that Gilbert is ill nearby with scarlet fever, having returned home from Halifax Medical School. Anne finally realizes her true feelings for Gilbert, and goes to visit him. After Gilbert regains his health, he proposes once more, and Anne accepts him with a kiss, declaring, "I don't want diamond sunbursts, or marble halls. I just want you."
romantic