<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed . Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise . (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <Dl> <Dt> Act I </Dt> </Dl> <P> On a rainy night in Edwardian London, opera patrons are waiting under the arches of Covent Garden for cabs . Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, runs into a young man called Freddy . She admonishes him for spilling her bunches of violets in the mud, but she cheers up after selling one to an older gentleman . She then flies into an angry outburst when a man copying down her speech is pointed out to her . The man explains that he studies phonetics and can identify anyone's origin by their accent . He laments Eliza's dreadful speech, asking why so many English people don't speak properly and explaining his theory that this is what truly separates social classes, rather than looks or money ("Why Can't the English?"). He declares that in six months he could turn Eliza into a lady by teaching her to speak properly . The older gentleman introduces himself as Colonel Pickering, a linguist who has studied Indian dialects . The phoneticist introduces himself as Henry Higgins, and, as they both have always wanted to meet each other, Higgins invites Pickering to stay at his home in London . He distractedly throws his change into Eliza's basket, and she and her friends wonder what it would be like to live a comfortable, proper life ("Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"). </P> <P> Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle, and his drinking companions, Harry and Jamie, all dustmen, stop by the next morning . He is searching for money for a drink, and Eliza shares her profits with him ("With a Little Bit of Luck"). Pickering and Higgins are discussing vowels at Higgins's home when Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper, informs Higgins that a young woman with a ghastly accent has come to see him . It is Eliza, who has come to take speech lessons so she can get a job as an assistant in a florist's shop . Pickering wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim and volunteers to pay for Eliza's lessons . An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball . Higgins sees himself as a kindhearted, patient man who cannot get along with women ("I'm an Ordinary Man"). To others he appears self - absorbed and misogynistic . </P>

Who was watching eliza in the opening scene