 “A handbag?” Lady Bracknell will not allow her daughter “—a girl brought up with the utmost care—to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel.”

At the manor house in the country, Cecily is daydreaming as her governess, Miss Prism, tries to teach her German.Uninvited, Algy arrives from London and assumes the role of Ernest.While Algy and Cecily are getting acquainted with the parlor, Jack arrives in black mourning clothes and informs Miss Prism that his brother, Ernest, is dead.