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Have you ever tried to clean a greasy tupperware with just water? It probably didn't go all too well. This is again down to the polarity of molecules. Grease, and other types of oils are non-polar molecules, which don't have the necessary split in charge required by water molecules (polar) to break them apart, and thus dissolve them.
However, add some soap and the grease comes right off. So the logical conclusion to reach might be that soap is made up of non-polar molecules, but this too isn't strictly true.
Soap, like fats, is a hydrocarbon chain. i.e. a large chain consisting of interlinking carbons and hydrogens. The difference between most fats and soap is that soap molecules have two different ends. One end of the soap molecule is a saturated hydrocarbon end, i.e. it is non-polar. Whilst the other end the polar, i.e. hydrophilic. Thus when you have something that is non-polar the non-polar end of the soap molecule interacts with that allowing it to be dissolved, whilst polar substances interact with the hydrophilic portion of the molecule.
Quite the versatile substance I would have to say.
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