Wealthy American Jervis Pendleton III accidentally meets a cheerful 18-year-old resident Julie Andre in a French orphanage. He anonymously pays for her college education in New England. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, whom she calls Daddy Long Legs (based on her fellow orphans description of his shadow), but he never answers. A few years later, he visits her at school, still hiding his identity. Despite the big age difference, they fall in love with each other.