A Taste of Honey opens with Helen, a "semi-whore," and her seventeen-year-old daughter Jo moving into a rundown flat in a Manchester rooming house. In a comedic, aggressive exchange, Jo complains about the condition of the place and implies that Helen made them leave their last home because she was running from someone. Though Helen doesn't consider herself a prostitute, Jo implies that Helen provides for herself and her daughter through lovers who give her money. Helen complains of a cold that makes her nose run. While unpacking, Helen discovers drawings Jo has made; Helen both compliments and insults the self-portraits, encouraging her daughter to go to art school. Jo tells her mother that she is planning to leave secondary school at Christmas and begin to make her own money so she doesn't have to live with Helen anymore.
Peter, a WWII veteran with an eye patch who is nine years younger than Helen, arrives at the flat. He has found her new address somehow. Peter has never met Jo, and he realizes Helen is older than she let on. In front of Jo, Peter makes sexual advances that simultaneously excite and repulse Helen. Jo is jealous to see Helen being affectionate with anyone but her. When he proposes marriage, Helen doesn't immediately agree or disagree. She eventually kicks him out. Jo threatens to have Helen locked up in a mental institution if she is seriously planning to marry again.
In Act One, Scene Two, Jo and her boyfriend, Jimmie, a Black sailor, flirt on the street outside the flat. Jimmie asks her to marry him, to which she agrees. They decide to get married when he returns from the Navy six months from then. Jimmie gives her a ring from the Woolworths department store. She ties the ring with her hair ribbon around her neck because it is too big for her finger. Jimmie asks if Helen will be upset that Jo is marrying a Black man. Jo says her mother isn't prejudiced against color, and Jo doesn't care either way. The two decide to save up so they can afford to start their life together.
In the flat, Jo admits she has a boyfriend, but doesn't mention his race. Helen and Jo discuss in a mocking tone how Helen cheated on her husband with Jo's biological father, leading the husband to divorce Helen.
Helen tells Jo she is going to get married to Peter. Peter arrives with flowers for Helen and chocolates for Jo. While Helen is getting ready to go out, Jo asks to see the pictures of all the women in Peter's wallet. He hesitates, but then shows her as though unashamed. Jo asks if he is already married. He says he isn't. Helen and Peter leave for a trip, and Jo doesn't believe Helen will be back. Jo's boyfriend comes over and consoles her, and she asks him to stay with her over Christmas.
Time jumps ahead to Helen's wedding day, but Jo is sick and unable to be at the ceremony. Helen sees that Jo has a ring around her neck and pulls it off, leaving a mark. She yells at Jo for thinking of marrying at such a young age. Jo asks who her real father is. Helen tells Jo that she was married to a Puritan who wouldn't sleep with her, and she found her first sexual experience in the arms of a man who was stupid and perhaps "a bit ... retarded." Helen leaves Jo to go to her wedding, after which she plans to move into a new house with Peter. Jo says she is neither happy nor sad to see her mother go.
Act Two begins several months later in the flat. It is summer. Jo is pregnant, and Jimmie has not returned; neither has Helen. Jo comes back from a fun-fair with Geoffrey, an art student who she lets sleep on her couch because his landlady recently kicked him out. He says he was thrown out of his previous living situation because he wasn't paying his rent, but Jo suspects it was because his landlady discovered him having sex with a man. Geoffrey is concerned about Jo raising a child on her own and wants to help her at home.
A few more months later, Jo is depressed about having the child. Geoffrey tries to reassure her that it will be okay. Saying he's never kissed a girl, he kisses her and asks her to marry him. She says she cannot marry him.
Helen arrives, having been contacted by Geoffrey, who wanted her to know about Jo's pregnancy. Jo guesses that Geoffrey has told her mother and this upsets her. The two women get into an argument and Geoffrey tries to calm them but is attacked himself. Peter then comes in drunk and angry. He and Helen insult Geoffrey for ostensibly being homosexual. Peter sees that Helen has left money for Jo and he takes it back before leaving. Helen joins him, though she tells Jo she will send money every week from now on.
In Act Two, Scene Two, Jo is nine months pregnant. Geoffrey is baking a cake and attempting to clean the filthy flat. Helen returns with all of her suitcases because Peter has thrown her out; she plans to stay with Jo. Helen is rude to Geoffrey, which causes him to go out for groceries to avoid being further attacked. Once he does, Jo defends Geoffrey, but her labor contractions begin, distracting her. Eventually Jo allows her mother to put her to bed, where she falls asleep.
Geoffrey returns and tells Helen that he is leaving, but first he asks Helen not to tear Jo down with her harshness. Jo wakes up and asks if Geoffrey has returned. Helen says that he hasn't, and doesn't reveal that he won't be coming back.
Jo then tells Helen that her baby will be Black. Helen jokes about needing to drown it; she also jokes that maybe the nurse coming to assist in the birth, who is Black, can adopt the baby. Helen, unsure what to do, leaves to get a drink, though she tells Jo she will be back. Jo watches her mother leave, then looks around the room with a smile as she remembers Geoffrey. She sings a few lyrics from a nursery rhyme Geoffrey earlier recited. The play ends.
