The anime is based on the novel En Famille by Hector Malot, which is also translated as Nobody's Girl. Another work by the author, Sans Famille, has a very similar story. That work was used as the basis of two separate anime series: Nobody's Boy: Remi and Remi, Nobody's Girl. The latter should not be confused with The Story of Perrine.
Perrine Paindavoine is the daughter of an Anglo-Indian mother, Marie, and a French father, Edmond, who dies in Bosnia at the very beginning of the story. Before dying, Edmond asks his wife and Perrine to return to his hometown, Maraucourt, where Perrine's grandfather, Vulfran, owns a factory and a family mansion. Perrine and her mother run a traveling photo studio on their journey to France.
