She goes from selling tat on the streets to a much more genteel and educated life but does it all with the same energy and charm even though her aunts seldom approved. She at first turns most peoples' noses up though in the end wins them over. She also has a crush on an older man (Adam Ladd).
Truthfully the film is more a series of comedy set-pieces linked together (though is based on a novel). The film has it's comedy moments, one of the best being Rebecca's struggles to stop herself stealing some pie, but scores best for nostalgia. The rural setting allows for a glimpse of the recently lost late nineteenth-century rural America, a land of home made pies and buggy whips.
