Four film versions of W. Somerset Maugham are brought together and introduced by the man himself:

'The Facts of Life' features a young tennis player who escapes from his domineering partner and absconds to Monaco;

'The Alien Corn' features Dirk Bogarde playing a man with the ambition to be a top pianist, but he is rejected by music scholars; 'The Kite' stars George Cole as a man with an obsession for kites and little time for his wife;

'The Colonel's Lady' revolves around a stuffy colonel's search for the man his wife has been writing passionate poems about.