Frank is a tutor of English whose disillusioned outlook on life drives him to drink and bury himself in his books. Enter Rita, a forthright 26-year-old hairdresser who is hungry for education. Rita quickly wins over the very reticent teacher by her native shrewdness and her refusal to accept secondhand academic opinions. In the course of the play she gives Frank a new lease on his life by making him believe in himself once again.