Heidi is a child without a mother or father. She comes to live with her grandfather when she is only six. Her grandfather is a hard, unhappy man, who hates everyone. That's why he chooses to live alone, high up in the mountains. There is a village nearby, but he doesn't talk to the people there. Will Heidi be able to make him change his ways?
Heidi loves living with her grandfather and his two pretty goats, Snowy and Browny. She makes friends too with Goat-Peter and his family who also live on the mountain.
But she does not stay in the mountains for ever. She goes to Franfkfurt, where she finds a new friend: poor Clara, who can't walk. Heidi learns many new things in Clara's fine house in Frankfurt. But she doesn't belong in a city - she belongs in the Swiss mountains, and feels homesick ...