In The Little Colonel in Arizona the story is centered around the Ware family, who, after their husband and father has died, and due to the mother's illness, have to move from Kentucky to Arizona. Joyce now has to take most of the responsibility for holding the family together. She is having difficulties in coming to terms with the family's new existence, feeling lonely and that her dreams for the future will never come true. But when she learns to know an invalid at Lee's Ranch who tells her the “Legend of Camelback Mountain”, and she learns the “Lesson of the Bees”, she begins to see a new hope growing

A letter to Lloyd, “the Little Colonel”, has the effect that she comes to visit the Ware's at their Wigwam for a month. Here she meets the handsome and likeable Phil Tremont who stirs something in her heart, and she wonders if he might be the one written in the stars for her. But Phil, kind and likeable as he is, has his own problems and has to learn to handle them and to learn the “Legend of Alaka and the lost turquoises”.

Another important person who we get to know more of in this story is the talkative and entertaining little Mary Ware, who has an important role in other, later stories. (Summary by Lars Rolander)