Based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, My Fair Lady tells the story of Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irascible professor of phonetics who boasts to fellow linguist Colonel Pickering that he can train any woman to speak so properly that he could pass her off as a duchess, including Eliza Doolittle, a poor girl with a decidedly Cockney accent whom he encountered selling flowers in Covent Garden. Pickering is intrigued by Higgins's boast and wagers that he cannot make good on his claim; Higgins takes on the challenge and begins an intensive make-over of Eliza's speech, manners and dress in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball. Complicating matters is Eliza's father Alfred, a cheerfully amoral and drink-loving dustman who shows up, supposedly to save his daughter's virtue, but in reality hoping to extract money from Higgins.