As the little girl Riley is moving from Minnesota to a new house in San Francisco, Sadness (one of the emotions in her head) touches a joyous memory and somehow turns it sad. Joy—the chief emotion—panics and convinces Sadness to move back where she can’t have any effect on Riley. This does a great job of introducing the conflict on a number of levels: Riley’s discomfort with the changes in her life is the main conflict in the “outer” story; Joy’s conflict with Sadness is the main interpersonal conflict; and Sadness’s ability to affect established memory’s becomes a catalyst throughout the plot.
