Peter shaffer’s first play; a critical and commercial success, it established his reputation as a dramatist.

The plot concerns tensions in the middle-class Harrington family. A German orphan, Walter Langer, is hired to tutor the daughter of the family, to which he becomes closely attached. The son is jealous of the intrusion of this outsider and untruthfully informs his father that his mother and Walter are having an affair. Giving up hope of being adopted, Walter attempts suicide.