Dame Edith Sitwell is on the final leg of a sell-out Recital Tour of America. Eccentric, old, aristocratic and extremely English, she has taken the States by storm. Nevertheless she is annoyed that her sponsors, Life Magazine, are holding her to her contract getting her to write an article interviewing a relatively unknown film actress, about to hit the big time.

Marilyn Monroe.

Life Magazine and Dame Edith know perfectly well that the two are unlikely to hit it off. But somehow these two opposites attract, surprise each other and forge a deep bond. Despite their totally different backgrounds, they lose their minders and find much more in common than either would have guessed. By the end of their allotted hour, they have discovered truths about motherhood and childhood, beauty and ugliness, the price of fame and the masks we hide behind – as well as the human truth that we have more in common than things that divide us.

The Dame and the Showgirl have become friends.