Upon moving to the South of England to start a public school teaching job and moving into the boarding house owned and operated by Labour councilor Dick Thompson (John Bird) and his long-suffering wife Martha Thompson (Sheila Hancock), Jenny Bunn (Hayley Mills) meets technical college graphics arts professor Patrick Standish (Oliver Reed), a "friend" of the other boarder, Anna (Geraldine Sherman). There is an attraction between Jenny and Patrick, one that Jenny refuses to act upon until she learns from Patrick that his relationship with Anna is strictly casual. However, Patrick and Jenny soon discover that there is an impasse between the two of them in having a relationship: Patrick, a confirmed bachelor, has never equated sex with love, while Jenny, a virgin, wants her first to be with someone she loves and loves her in return. While there is a possibility that one or the other may move closer mentally to the other for that relationship to flourish, what happens between the two of them, they who are thrown together regardless in working on Dick's re-election, is affected by others beyond Anna within their collective social circle, they who may be more perceptive about their want with Jenny or Patrick: Dick, who is known by Martha to have wandering eye especially when he's drunk, he who she just considers a dirty old man; Graham (Ronald Lacey), Patrick's friend who may respect Jenny's romantic wants more but to who Jenny is not remotely attracted; Julian Ormerod (Noel Harrison), Dick's hip and mod campaign strategist who is more worldly than Patrick; and Wendy (Aimi MacDonald), Julian's sexually aggressive, dumb blonde television spokes-model friend and casual sexual partner.—Huggo