<P> Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith) is a teacher in the junior - aged section of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s . Brodie is known for her tendency to stray from the hard knowledge of the school's curriculum, to romanticize fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco, and to believe herself to be in the prime of life . Brodie devotes her time and energy to her four special 12 - year - old junior school girls, called the Brodie Set: Sandy (Pamela Franklin), Monica (Shirley Steedman), Jenny (Diane Grayson) and Mary (Jane Carr). </P> <P> The set often go to art museums, theatre, concerts, and have picnics on the school lawn, among other things, which rather upsets the school's austere headmistress, Emmeline Mackay (Celia Johnson), who dislikes the fact that the girls are cultured to the exclusion of hard knowledge, and the Brodie girls seem precocious for their age . She seems to have a running grudge against Brodie, who has tenure and had been at Marcia Blaine for six years prior to Mackay being appointed headmistress . Brodie boasts to her girls that the only way she will stop teaching is if she is assassinated . </P> <P> Besides working with her girls, Jean catches the eye of music teacher / church choirmaster Gordon Lowther (Gordon Jackson), with whom she and her girls spend a lot of time at his home in Cramond, a seaside village on the outskirts of Edinburgh . Brodie sometimes spends the night with Lowther, although she tries to conceal this from the girls . Lowther wants to get married, but Brodie drags her feet . She still has feelings for her married ex-lover, Teddy Lloyd (Robert Stephens), who is the art teacher in the senior section of the school . </P> <P> Also working with Brodie (and all somewhat disapproving of her unorthodox teaching methods and her influence on the girls) are Miss Campbell (Margo Cunningham), the physical education teacher; Miss Ellen (Helena Gloag) and Miss Allison Kerr (Molly Weir), two sisters who serve as the school's sewing teachers; Miss McKenzie (Isla Cameron), the strict librarian; and Miss Gaunt (Ann Way), the headmistress's mouselike, non-talking secretary . Miss Gaunt's brother, a deacon at Lowther's church, eventually asks for his resignation as church organist and elder because of his relationship with Brodie . </P>

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