The play takes place at Mr. Jourdain's house in Paris. Jourdain is a middle-aged 'bourgeois' whose father grew rich as a cloth merchant. The foolish Jourdain now has one aim in life, which is to rise above this middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat. To this end, he orders splendid new clothes and is very happy when the tailor's boy mockingly addresses him as 'my Lord'.