Content Warning: This section of the guide refers to scenes involving sexual assault, grooming of students, and support for fascist ideologies.

In 1936, a group of boys stands near the gates of Edinburgh’s Marcia Blaine School, talking to a group of 16-year-old girls. The boys all hold their bicycles by the handlebars and the girls all wear panama hats, a required part of their school uniform. This group of girls is known as the “Brodie set,” a reference to their association with a teacher named Jean Brodie, who began teaching the girls at age 10. Miss Brodie is known for teaching material outside the curriculum, including lessons on Italian Renaissance painters, skin care, astrology, and Benito Mussolini. Miss Brodie also talks to the group about her own love life. As the novel opens, the girls are 16 and have moved to the upper school. Miss Brodie is no longer their teacher, though she remains the most influential figure in each of their lives. They are infamous throughout the school, particularly for their lack of interest in forming friendships outside their group.

Each girl in the Brodie set is well-known for an individual characteristic, and each wears her panama hat slightly off-kilter, violating school policy.