The scene is laid in the latter part of the nineteenth century, at the back of the large, dingy, and rather shabby flower-shop of 'Covent Garden', with a narrow street entrance and a better back entrance for tradesmen. It is raining; the early morning is cold and raw; there are puddles in the street, and the pavement is slippery. The shop is a small room, rather untidy. At the back, is a staircase ascending to the living-rooms above; opposite the door is a counter with vases and pots and baskets and parcels upon it. A trumpet and a trumpet-case lie upon a stool. There is a ladder against the wall, and a shelf with bundles of straw. A curtain near the stair hides the passage to the back-kitchen and lavatory. A little stove is grumbling in a corner. The lights are of the gas-jet type; there are cheap prints on the walls and a clock; two chairs are placed near the counter. A notice-board shows advertised flowers and their prices. The window looks out on the pavement and the street-lamp. Through the open door, one sees the parade of people in the street under their umbrellas.
Mrs. Higgins' maid, Mrs. Pearce, is not in sight, but her presence is indicated by the bustle and repeating call: "Run in and ask her," "Send her to the door," "Tell her to look," etc. A policeman passes with a slowly walking footman and a muffled-up gentleman. The muffled gentleman takes two steps into the shop, looks for a moment at the flowers, and then asks for a bunch of violets. A flower-boy nearby, a child of eight or ten, sells violets and roses for a penny a bunch, and joins in the conversation. A girl of about twenty, Eliza Doolittle, dressed in a gaudy and untidy dress and hat, who has a basket of flowers and stands in the doorway calling 'Oranges! lemons! warmed-up for the walk!', is the centre of attraction. Her accent is broad Cockney. She is a bright, resolute, well-meaning girl, and speaks with the quickness and brusqueness of the streets.
A large, portly, elderly gentleman in a splendid frock coat and tall hat enters, followed by a smaller man of middle age, dressed plainly but with an air of self-confidence and authority. They are Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering, a cultured, kindly gentleman and student of Indian dialects. Higgins is brusque and absorbed in his interest in phonetics; he has a quick eye and a quick tongue. He glances at Eliza, and, with a few remarks to Pickering, begins to demonstrate the differences between dialects. He addresses her roughly, asking her where she obtained her language, and she replies with quick repartee. Higgins' remarks show his scientific interest in her speech rather than any personal attitude.
Eliza asks for the price of a bunch of flowers; Higgins, with professional curiosity, bargains with her as if he were analyzing her speech. The flower-girl's wit and self-respect are evident as she resists being flattered and refuses to be conned. She confesses that she pays little for her education, and that she is taught by 'the streets' and 'the gutters'. A vulgar young man — Freddy — stalks in and offers to escort her, but she repels him, not from virtue but from shrewdness. Higgins and Pickering observe; Pickering is amused and interested sympathetically; Higgins is keenly fascinated and proposes a wager: that he can transform the girl into a lady in six months by teaching her to speak properly.
The idea of 'transforming' Eliza is discussed. Higgins is confident and asserts that speech and manners make the lady. Pickering nuances the suggestion with kindness. Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper, appears and tidies things up, expressing doubt and concern at Higgins' plan. She is practical and disturbed at the thought of bringing a poor girl into a gentleman's house. Higgins laughs at the idea of inconvenience and insists on treating the experiment as scientific work. The act closes with the girl's decision — Eliza, tired of her present life and attracted by the prospects of bettering herself, resolves to try to learn to speak properly, and she asks Higgins to take her as a pupil. Higgins accepts, and the curtain falls as the scene closes on the bustling Covent Garden morning.