The setting of Look Back in Anger is Jimmy Porter’s attic flat apartment in a large midland town in England. The time setting is the mid-1950s. Jimmy and Alison, his wife, share their apartment with Cliff, Jimmy’s friend who is working class like Jimmy.
The two are educated, though Jimmy has more education than Cliff. They run a sweet stall together as their business. Alison however is from the upper class of the society.
The first scene opens on a Sunday in April, the two friends; Jimmy and Cliff are reading the Sunday papers while Alison is ironing on the ironing board. Jimmy, a troublemaker, starts throwing banters that will provoke Cliff and Alison.
He castigates Cliff for his low education and makes fun of him that he is common and has low intelligence. Cliff is cool-headed and understands Jimmy. He slanders Alison’s family and their interference in their affairs before they get married.
He also talks about England’s powerful pasts, and that the world is now in the American age. He refers to it as “dreary.” Jimmy later says that the sound of the iron is disturbing him. Alison then urges him to keep the peace.
This further infuriates Jimmy and results in a playful fight between Jimmy and Cliff. They drag themselves towards Alison and fall on the ironing board.
Alison falls and Jimmy feels sorry for the wound Alison sustains that it is not intentional. She only tells him to get out.
Jimmy leaves the room and Alison informs Cliff that she is pregnant with Jimmy’s child and that she has not told him. Cliff advises her to tell him. Jimmy later comes in and the two engage in their game, where Jimmy acts as a bear and Alison a squirrel.
Cliff re-enters and tells Alison that her friend, Helena has called her on the phone. After she receives the call, she tells Jimmy that Helena is coming to stay with them. Jimmy raises eyebrows as he hates Helena and he tells Cliff that she is one of her natural enemies.
When Helena arrives, Alison discusses her marital life with her; how they met, how they lived their early days after marriage, Jimmy’s relationship with Hugh, and how Hugh travelled.
She also talks about Jimmy’s relationship with her parents and how he used to pass uncomplimentary comments about her parents. Helena enquires about the relationship between Alison and Cliff. Alison replies that they are just close friends.
Jimmy and Cliff are back to the flat and Jimmy makes anti-religious utterances when he learns that Alison and Helena are going to the church. He also slanders Alison’s parents and this annoys Helena who threatens to slap him.
Jimmy also dares her that he will slap her back. He then asks her whether she has ever experienced watching somebody dying. He tells her how he watched his father who was injured fighting in the Spanish Civil War dying when he was just ten.
Helena tells Alison that she has sent a message to Colonel Redfem, her father, to come and take her home because of Jimmy’s problems. Colonel Redfem was an officer in the British military and served in India.
Jimmy receives a phone call that Hugh’s mother, Mrs. Tanner is sick. He wants Alison to follow him there but feels betrayed when Alison follows Helena to the church.
Alison’s father arrives the following evening and she packs her things. Her father comments that he doesn’t understand the love that exists between Jimmy and Alison.
He admits that he and his wife are to blame for it because they interfere in their affairs in the first instance. Helena and Cliff later come in and Alison gives Cliff a letter to Jimmy, explaining why she leaves.
Cliff, who blames Helena for what happened, throws the letter at her to give it to Jimmy. She tells Cliff that she is staying just for tonight.
Jimmy returns annoyed that Colonel Redfem almost hit him with his car and Cliff pretends not to see him while walking on the street. Helena hands Alison’s letter to him. The content of the letter arouses his anger the most.
Helena then tells him about Alison’s pregnancy; he feels unconcerned and condemns Alison for not following him to Mrs. Hugh’s place. He also shouts at Helena insulting her and she slaps him. Jimmy is still within the aura of the slap when she kisses him passionately.
Several months later, Jimmy and Cliff are reading Sunday papers and Helena is ironing. Jimmy and Cliff are engaged in their hot arguments and jokes.
Jimmy talks about Miss Drury his landlady to Alison’s mother and then to an American professor from Yale who believes that when Shakespeare was writing “The Tempest,” he changed his sex.
They also engage in musical rendition. They later result in physical combat where they push and drag themselves onto the ground. Cliff complains that his shirt is dirty and Helena offers to wash it for him.
When Helena goes to wash the shirt, Cliff tells Jimmy that he wants to leave the apartment and look for something better elsewhere. Jimmy takes it kindly and says he has been a good friend to him.
Helena comes in with the shirt and gives it to Cliff. As they all plan to go out, Alison just comes in. Jimmy goes out and plays his trumpet, while Helena and Alison discuss in the room. Alison has lost her child.
Alison says she regrets her coming down there, she doesn’t know her business in the apartment. Helena then tells her that she has every right to be in the apartment.
Helena expects Alison to be angry with her for sharing Jimmy with her, but Alison doesn’t take it as something serious; she says she has not come to stop the affairs between Jimmy and Helena.
The noise from Jimmy’s trumpet disturbs them and Helena asks him to come into the room. She then informs him that Alison has lost the child. He just shrugs it off and says without being told, that he knows.
Helena then confesses that her sense of morality tells her that what she has done is wrong and wants to leave. Alison tries to convince her to stay and that Jimmy will be lonely if she leaves.
When Helena eventually leaves, Jimmy wants to be angry with Alison for not attending Mrs. Hugh’s funeral. She pacifies him that she was wrong and has learnt the lesson he wanted her to learn.
She narrates the ugly experiences she passed through. Jimmy sees her as a changed person and has become like him. They play their game of Bear and Squirrel and then embrace.