Animating Maria

THE SCHOOL FOR MANNERS

If you have a Wild, Unruly, or Undisciplined Daughter, two Ladies of Genteel Birth offer to Bring Out said Daughter and Refine what may have seemed Unrefinable. We can make the Best of the Worst.

Amy and Effy Tribble place this advertisement in the "Morning Post" and hire themselves out as chaperones to prepare difficult young misses for marriage, educating them in their School for Manners.

Maria Kendall is beautiful, delightfully mannered, graceful and extremely well-dowered and the Tribble sisters think that they will have no problem in securing her a duke. Thus all of polite London society is astonished that she is the latest charge of Amy and Effy Tribble, eccentric spinsters specializing in making matches for unmarriageable misses.

But when Maria's suitors -- among them the roguish and exceedingly aristocratic Duke of Berham -- meet her vulgar and boorish parents, proposals of marriage invariably vanish. Now the Tribbles face their greatest challenge -- taking on, not only Maria, but the hopelessly common Kendalls as well!