Like many girls, Emma Woodhouse thinks she knows best. Her heart is in the right place - but her head isn't. Beautiful, clever and rich, she only wants to help others arrange things as she thinks they should be done. Emma has no interest in true love for herself: convinced she's just not destined to find it, she believes she must instead devote herself to playing Cupid for others.

Ignoring the warnings of good family friend Mr Knightley, Emma sets out to find a husband for her favourite new companion, the lovely, shy Harriet Smith. But absolutely nothing goes to plan - and in the process, Emma has a lot of learning to do: about others, but most of all about herself.