Rather than use the same old colors, a child paints animals and objects in a variety of different hues, in a story inspired by the German painter Franz Marc, who created unconventional animal paintings in the early 1900s.

Heidi is sent from her happy mountain home to a big city where she can go to school and be a companion for Clara, a wealthy, gentle girl who cannot walk. But the goats and the Grandfather are Heidi's only happiness and when she returns home, Clara soon follows to find health in the clean Alpine air.