Overwiew :Two young gentlemen living in 1890's England use the same pseudonym ('Ernest') on the sly, which is fine until they fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities. Whenever Jack Worthing slips away to London from his Hertfordshire estate he says he is going to see his (fictitious) wayward brother Earnest. Once there he keeps his privacy by calling himself Earnest - luckily so as his beloved Gwendolen declares she could only love an Earnest. Her cousin Algy is the one person who knows Jack's secret and one day he travels down to the estate, announcing himself to Jack's attractive ward Cecily as bad brother Earnest. Cecily is much taken with him and with his name, so on Jack's return home and Gwendoen's unexpectedly arrival it becomes clear there are both too many and too few Earnests earnestly courting.
