An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and to avoid being sent back, she tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses are having a lesbian affair. The accusation proceeds to destroy the women’s careers, relationships and lives.

The play is based on the following incident. In 1810 in Edinburgh, Scotland a student named Jane Cumming accused her school mistresses Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods of having an affair in the presence of their students. Dame Cumming Gordon, the accuser’s influential grandmother, advised her friends to remove their daughters from the boarding school and within days the school was deserted and the two women had been deprived of their livelihood. Pirie and Woods eventually prevailed both in court and on appeal, but given the damage already done to their lives, the win was considered a hollow one.

In 1936, the play was made into a film directed by William Wyler. However, the story was adapted into a heterosexual love triangle, the controversial name of the play was changed and the movie eventually was released as “These Three”.

In 1961, the play was adapted, with its original lesbian theme, then made into the film that became, “The Children’s Hour”, which was also directed by William Wyler. It starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McClain as the two headmistresses. They gave great perfomances and it was amazing how well done this movie handled the issue of lesbianism for its time.