diff -r cf70f030a744 Lib/plistlib.py
--- a/Lib/plistlib.py	Wed Jun 18 23:07:46 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/plistlib.py	Mon Jun 23 21:44:22 2014 +0300
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
     usually is a dictionary).
     """
     didOpen = 0
-    if isinstance(pathOrFile, (str, unicode)):
+    if isinstance(pathOrFile, basestring):
         pathOrFile = open(pathOrFile)
         didOpen = 1
     p = PlistParser()
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
     file name or a (writable) file object.
     """
     didOpen = 0
-    if isinstance(pathOrFile, (str, unicode)):
+    if isinstance(pathOrFile, basestring):
         pathOrFile = open(pathOrFile, "w")
         didOpen = 1
     writer = PlistWriter(pathOrFile)
@@ -219,7 +219,11 @@
     text = text.replace("&", "&")       # escape '&'
     text = text.replace("<", "&lt;")        # escape '<'
     text = text.replace(">", "&gt;")        # escape '>'
-    return text.encode("utf-8")             # encode as UTF-8
+    try:
+        text = text.encode("utf-8")         # encode as UTF-8
+    except AttributeError:                  # no unicode support
+        pass
+    return text
 
 
 PLISTHEADER = """\
@@ -235,7 +239,7 @@
         DumbXMLWriter.__init__(self, file, indentLevel, indent)
 
     def writeValue(self, value):
-        if isinstance(value, (str, unicode)):
+        if isinstance(value, basestring):
             self.simpleElement("string", value)
         elif isinstance(value, bool):
             # must switch for bool before int, as bool is a
@@ -275,7 +279,7 @@
         items = d.items()
         items.sort()
         for key, value in items:
-            if not isinstance(key, (str, unicode)):
+            if not isinstance(key, basestring):
                 raise TypeError("keys must be strings")
             self.simpleElement("key", key)
             self.writeValue(value)
@@ -434,7 +438,7 @@
         data = "".join(self.data)
         try:
             data = data.encode("ascii")
-        except UnicodeError:
+        except (UnicodeError, AttributeError):
             pass
         self.data = []
         return data
diff -r cf70f030a744 Lib/test/test_plistlib.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_plistlib.py	Wed Jun 18 23:07:46 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/test/test_plistlib.py	Mon Jun 23 21:44:22 2014 +0300
@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@
             anInt = 728,
             aDict=dict(
                 anotherString="<hello & 'hi' there!>",
-                aUnicodeValue=u'M\xe4ssig, Ma\xdf',
+                aUnicodeValue=u'M\xe4ssig, Ma\xdf' if test_support.have_unicode
+                              else 'M\xc3\xa4ssig, Ma\xc3\x9f',
                 aTrueValue=True,
                 aFalseValue=False,
                 deeperDict=dict(a=17, b=32.5, c=[1, 2, "text"]),
@@ -113,7 +114,8 @@
             nestedData = [plistlib.Data("<lots of binary gunk>\0\1\2\3" * 10)],
             aDate = datetime.datetime(2004, 10, 26, 10, 33, 33),
         )
-        pl[u'\xc5benraa'] = "That was a unicode key."
+        pl[u'\xc5benraa' if test_support.have_unicode else '\xc3\x85benraa'] = \
+                "That was a unicode key."
         return pl
 
     def test_create(self):