New York City during the Depression. Annie, determined to find her parents, escapes from an orphanage but is found and returned just as Grace Farrell, secretary to wealthy Oliver Warbucks, is there for her annual visit to choose a boy whom Warbucks can host for the Christmas holidays. Miss Hannigan, the scurrilous orphanage head, is furious when Annie charms Grace into choosing her and more angry still when Warbucks takes to the young girl. (Grace comes to tell a furious Miss Hannigan that Annie will be staying a bit longer, bumping into Hannigan's brother Rooster and his doxy, Lily, on her way out.) The entrepreneur eventually becomes so taken with Annie that he wants to adopt her, but to his surprise she doesn't accept, for she still wants to find her real parents. Warbucks loves her enough to offer a $50,000 reward to anyone who can prove they're Annie's real parents. That's when Rooster and Lily, fortified by information about Annie that only Hannigan knows, decide to impersonate Annie's parents. The ruse seems to work--until Rooster again bumps into Grace and jogs her into remembering where she'd seen him before. It's discovered that Annie's parents died some time ago, so she and Warbucks become father and daughter by curtain's fall. Synopsis (c) Peter Filichia