Two gentlemen, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, have a brilliant plan! To spice up their quiet country life and bring some excitement into it, they invent a person they absolutely must travel to. Jack creates an imaginary brother, Philip, who he uses as an excuse to travel to London to see the lovely Gwendoline. Algernon, on the other hand, has an imaginary friend, Banbury, who is constantly ill and must urgently visit him at his hospital bed. Everything starts to fall apart when Moncrieff starts calling himself Philip after visiting Worthing's young protégé, Cecilia, at her country estate. When the two gentlemen find themselves under the same roof together - it's time to discover how important it is to have Philip!