Lady Windermere's Fan recap

On her twenty-first birthday, morally severe Lady Windermere is told that her husband is having an affair with the socially suspect Mrs. Erlynne. His secret payments and insistence on inviting Mrs. Erlynne to that evening's ball deepen the suspicion. Humiliated, Lady Windermere decides to leave him for Lord Darlington. Mrs. Erlynne finds her farewell note and follows her to Darlington's rooms, where she reveals to the audience that she is Margaret's disgraced mother and refuses to let her daughter repeat her own destructive flight. When the men arrive and discover Lady Windermere's fan, Mrs. Erlynne emerges and claims she took it, sacrificing her reputation so Margaret can escape unseen. Margaret returns to her husband without learning Mrs. Erlynne's identity. Mrs. Erlynne suppresses Margaret's confession, secures a treasured photograph, and leaves England engaged to Lord Augustus. The marriage survives because the woman condemned as immoral acts with the greatest generosity.

Lady Windermere prepares for a ball celebrating her twenty-first birthday while resisting Lord Darlington's flirtation and his cynical view of society. The Duchess of Berwick arrives with gossip that Lord Windermere has been visiting and financially supporting a woman named Mrs. Erlynne. Margaret checks her husband's bankbook and finds repeated large payments. When confronted, Lord Windermere refuses to explain and insists that Mrs. Erlynne must be invited to the ball so she can re-enter respectable society. He writes the invitation himself after Margaret refuses and warns that insulting the guest would create a scandal. Margaret, convinced of his infidelity, declares that she will strike Mrs. Erlynne with the fan her husband gave her if the woman comes.

At the birthday ball, Lady Windermere receives a stream of fashionable guests while waiting tensely for Mrs. Erlynne. The newcomer arrives and, rather than being rejected, uses her confidence and charm to win acceptance from much of the room. Lord Augustus, who hopes to marry her, asks Lord Windermere about her standing and receives carefully limited reassurance. Margaret interprets her husband's attention to Mrs. Erlynne as confirmation of betrayal. Lord Darlington urges Margaret to leave with him and promises a life beyond the marriage she now despises. She initially refuses, but after the guests depart she writes her husband a farewell note and goes to Darlington's rooms. Mrs. Erlynne finds the note and reacts with urgent concern, taking it before Lord Windermere can see it and leaving to bring Margaret back.

Mrs. Erlynne finds Lady Windermere waiting in Lord Darlington's rooms and begs her to return to her husband and child. Her desperation reveals to the audience that she is Margaret's mother, who abandoned her family years earlier and has used that hidden connection to extract money and social assistance from Lord Windermere. Margaret does not learn the identity but finally agrees to go home. Before the women can leave, Darlington arrives with Lord Windermere, Lord Augustus, Cecil Graham, and Mr. Dumby, forcing them to hide. Cecil discovers Lady Windermere's distinctive fan, and Lord Windermere angrily demands that Darlington explain why it is there. To prevent Margaret from being exposed, Mrs. Erlynne steps out alone and claims that she mistakenly took the fan from the Windermere house. Margaret slips away unseen while Mrs. Erlynne accepts the resulting damage to her own reputation.

The next morning, Lady Windermere is home with her husband, who does not know she went to Darlington's rooms. She wants to confess and now defends Mrs. Erlynne as a good woman, while Lord Windermere believes Mrs. Erlynne behaved disgracefully. Mrs. Erlynne visits before leaving England. She prevents Margaret from admitting the previous night's events and keeps their mother-daughter relationship secret, sparing Margaret both scandal and painful knowledge of her family history. She asks for a photograph of Margaret and her child as a private keepsake. Lord Augustus then arrives and reports that Mrs. Erlynne has given him a satisfactory explanation; he intends to marry her and take her abroad. Mrs. Erlynne leaves with her future secured, Lady Windermere remains with her husband, and the couple finish with opposite judgments of the woman whose sacrifice protected them.

Mrs. Erlynne takes responsibility for Lady Windermere's fan being in Lord Darlington's rooms, allowing Margaret to return home without her attempted departure becoming known. Lord Windermere, unaware of Mrs. Erlynne's sacrifice, regards her as irredeemable and wants her kept away from his wife. Margaret instead believes the older woman showed courage and refuses to condemn her. Mrs. Erlynne visits before leaving England but prevents Margaret from confessing the truth about the previous night. She also keeps secret that she is Margaret's mother, so Margaret never learns either the source of the blackmail or the full reason she was rescued. Mrs. Erlynne obtains a photograph of her daughter and says farewell. She then persuades Lord Augustus to accept her account of the night at Darlington's rooms, and he announces that they will marry and live abroad. The Windermeres remain together, each holding a different and incomplete judgment of the woman who preserved their marriage.