After nine marriages to a series of devious young women, Giles Wingate has run through his entire £3 million inheritance and finds himself bankrupt, and in court on a charge of embezzling £30,000 from his own business.

Convicted and released on a suspended sentence as he has already paid the money back, Wingate sets about re-establishing his family fortune by putting to use the lessons he learned in the process of losing it: he sets about establishing his own, somewhat unconventional finishing school for delinquent young women.

Utilising a contact in the probation service for recruitment, he and a tiny staff of three others - PT instructor Hector, butler Fred, and headmistress the Duchess of Burwash - intend to instruct the girls in the various arts requisite to seduce and fleece other wealthy men of their fortunes, on a healthy commission of 33%.