The King family have lived in a small farming community called Avonlea on Prince Edward Island for generations. In the early 1900s, the eldest of the five King siblings, Hetty (Jackie Burroughs), oversees the goings-on in the family and ensures everything runs to her high and rigid standards. Eldest brother, Alec (Cedric Smith), and his family run the King farm. Youngest sister Olivia (Mag Ruffman), who still is treated as the baby by the others despite being a grown woman, is the third of the siblings still living in Avonlea.