Based on the classic legend, Pygmalion is about Professor Henry Higgins, a teacher of phonetics. Higgins takes on Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, as his student. She is transformed from a guttersnipe into an elegant woman but then, like the statue of the legend, having come to life, she falls in love with Higgins.

It is after dinner on a January night, in the library in Lady Britomart Undershaft's house in Wilton Crescent. A large and comfortable settee is in the middle of the room, upholstered in dark leather. A person sitting on it [it is vacant at present] would have, on his right, Lady Britomart's writing table, with the lady herself busy at it; a smaller writing table behind him on his left; the door behind him on Lady Britomart's side; and a window with a window seat directly on his left. Near the window is an armchair.