The plot of this film bears little resemblance to the storylines of any of the "Anne" source books because of legal disputes that were at the time ongoing between Kevin Sullivan and the heirs of Anne author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Ultimately, Canadian courts agreed with the heirs that Sullivan had withheld from the heirs contractually promised profits from the first two films in the series (Anne of Green Gables (1985) and Anne of Avonlea (1987)), and the courts also found groundless Sullivan's $55-million suit against the heirs.