A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton's stately country home. One of the guests is Gerard Arbuthnot, an earnest, upright young man whose prospects are limited, so he is overjoyed when the suave Lord Illingworth offers him employment as his secretary. His mother, however, implores him to refuse this brilliant entree into sophisticated society.
Should she reveal the shameful secret that she has kept hidden for twenty years and possibly destroy her beloved son's happiness forever? How can she show Gerard that, contrary to appearances, Lord Illingworth is 'a man of no importance'?