Eliza Doolittle, a rough Cockney girl, meets Colonel Pickering and Henry Higgins in Covent Garden where she's selling flowers. When Higgins remarks that he could help Eliza speak properly and raise her status in the community, Pickering challenges him to do so and Eliza takes him up on the offer. Though difficult and frustrating for both Eliza and Higgins at first, the lessons soon begin to work wonders, and produce results that neither predict.