Plot summary

Jean Brodie (Dame Maggie Smith) is a dedicated, if eccentric, teacher at an all-girls school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. She has little time for the approved curriculum and rather teaches "her girls" her own romanticized, fantasist view of history, the arts, and the world in general. She is a strong supporter of Mussolini and with the on-set of the Spanish Civil War, Franco. She pushes her girls to excel in what she perceives to be their strengths: Monica (Shirley Steedman) will act in plays; Mary McGregor (Jane Carr) will overcome her stutter and make them all proud; Jenny (Diane Grayson) will be painted many times and will be a great lover; and Sandy (Pamela Franklin) will use her intellect and and insight and be a great spy. Sandy realizes the dangerous game Miss Brodie is playing and after one of the other girls is killed, sets out to stop her.—garykmcd