Jean Brodie is in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all of her pupils are the crème de le crème. The Brodie Set, as her students at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls are famously known, hang on Miss Brodie's every word as she - with reckless abandon - dismisses the standard curriculum in favor of lessons in subjects as wide-ranging as Giotto to Hitler to her own romances.

When Miss Brodie begins an affair with one teacher to distract from her affair with another, and a false love letter falls into the wrong hands, the headmistress puts Brodie under review. Her considerable bombast is the only thing that saves her job, until a fatal error in guidance, and the betrayal of her favorite student become more than Miss Jean Brodie can overcome - even in her prime.