When nine-year-old Pippi Longstocking's father is washed overboard during a storm at sea, she moves into his house, the Villa Villekulla, with her horse, named Horse, her monkey Mr Nilsson, and a large stash of gold coins. Pippi's outspoken personality brings her into inevitable conflict with the local schoolteacher, the police, the arch-criminals Thunder-Karlsson and Bloom--who are after her gold--and the town busy-body Mrs Prysselius who wants to put her in an orphanage. A kidnapping plot designed by Mrs Prysselius is foiled as Pippi escapes the clutches of Thunder-Karlsson and Bloom, riding away on Horse with her neighbors Tommy and Annika. Arriving back at the Villa Villekulla, they encounter a furious Mrs Prysselius. At that moment who should arrive but Captain Longstocking and his entire crew. As the Captain calms the angry Mrs Prysselius, Pippi makes plans to stay with her new friends.