The Getaway Girls

Connie McColl, a 69-year-old recently divorced woman living in London, feels a familiar restlessness as she teaches her final flower-arranging class. After 41 years of marriage to Roger, she is free for the first time in decades, living in her elder daughter Diana's flat. Two of her students stay behind to help clean up and accept her invitation for a pub drink: Maggie Holmes, a petite Scotswoman whose long-term partner Ringer Bell, a career criminal, appears to be replacing her with a younger woman; and Gill Riley, a former glamour model turning 70 but claiming 60, twice divorced, once widowed, and still hoping for romance.

Following the death of her Aunt Lorna, Connie's cousin Judith hands her a battered biscuit tin containing a marriage certificate for Robert Cox and Maria Martilucci of Amalfi, Italy, along with faded Italian letters, sepia photographs, and a topaz ring. Orphaned at five and raised by her uncle's family, Connie knew nothing about her father's side. The discovery of an Italian grandmother ignites a desire to visit the Amalfi Coast and search for relatives. When a stopped train gives her a view of a motorhome dealership, the idea of driving to Italy takes shape. At their next pub meeting, both Maggie and Gill volunteer to join: Maggie to escape Ringer, and Gill to avoid her family's birthday party and reconnect with Fabio Moroni, an Italian man she had an affair with 20 years earlier.

Connie buys La Bellezza, a spacious Italian left-hand-drive motorhome she nicknames Bella. Her son Nick worries about his mother traveling with near-strangers, while Diana encourages the plan. On the morning of departure, Maggie discovers an enormous canvas bag of cash hidden in the oven, proceeds from a bank robbery Ringer carried out the night before. Viewing the money as compensation for 38 years of loyalty to a man now discarding her, she stuffs the notes into her holdall, a backpack, and even into the empty cup of her bra where her prosthetic breast normally sits, then slips out before Ringer wakes.

The three board a ferry at Portsmouth and cross to France. Maggie is anxious throughout, obsessively checking Bella's locks. She claims she won 100,000 pounds on a scratch card and insists on treating them to everything. In Paris, Maggie buys Connie a sea-green designer dress and pays for Gill's hair appointment. However, Maggie's friend Pam back in London has innocently forwarded photos of the three women beside Bella to Ringer, complete with the vehicle's registration number. Maggie receives a threatening email and insists they leave the campsite early. Shortly after, the campsite owner confirms a man in a maroon Lexus visited looking for them.

As they travel south, Gill confronts Maggie privately about the money's true origin. Maggie admits she took it from the oven and that Ringer is pursuing them but makes Gill promise not to tell Connie. On the autoroute, Maggie spots a maroon Lexus trailing them. In Avignon, Gill meets a charming man calling himself Bill at a café who asks probing questions about their trip; suspecting from his maroon Lexus and possible Scottish accent that he may be Ringer traveling in disguise, she flees in alarm. Near Cannes, Gill is mistaken for a hired chef and accidentally boards the luxury yacht Il Delfino, leading to an amusing mix-up. Larry Portland-Smythe, a retired lieutenant colonel who has attached himself to their group, corners Connie in his caravan in Nice and tries to force himself on her; she shouts until he backs off and cuts off contact.

Over wine one evening, Connie opens up about her marriage, her affair with a younger man named Don Robertson, and the loss of her son Ben in an accident. Then she finds a newspaper naming Ringer Bell as a fugitive wanted for the Bluett's Bank robbery. She confronts Maggie, who admits the truth; Gill reveals she has known for some time. Connie is furious but decides she cannot abandon her friends or the trip.

They cross into Italy. In San Remo, Connie meets a friendly Englishwoman named Carol whose boyfriend drives a maroon Lexus, deepening her unease. When they encounter Carol again in Portofino, Maggie gives fake names and claims they are heading to Venice to mislead Ringer. In Viareggio, they celebrate Gill's 70th birthday with boisterous Italian campsite neighbors. On the beach, Gill drifts too far out while swimming and is rescued by Alfonso, a 73-year-old widowed retired police chief. A passionate romance blooms. Alfonso invites them to park behind his villa, drives them on excursions to Pisa, Florence, and Volterra, and in Florence they adopt a stray dog Gill names Toto.

While shopping in Viareggio, Gill spots a man with Ringer's distinctive scar and confides in Alfonso that someone is pursuing Maggie. Alfonso provides tickets for Andrea Bocelli's annual open-air concert at the Teatro del Silenzio near Lajatico in Tuscany, and the evening under the stars proves transcendent.

In Rome, Gill arranges to visit Fabio aboard Il Delfino, the same yacht from the Cannes incident, and discovers he has severe dementia and is married. Accepting that her future lies with Alfonso, she leaves quietly. Ringer phones Maggie claiming he has had a heart attack and lures her to a hospital, where he ambushes her outside the gates. She escapes by leaping onto a passing bus, but her stolen diary contains the address of their next campsite in Sorrento.

They reach the Amalfi Coast. Connie takes the train to Naples and meets Eduardo Pozzi, a lawyer whose family firm has practiced for two centuries. Pozzi delivers mixed news: No living Martilucci relatives exist, but there is unclaimed family property near Amalfi, roughly 3,000 square metres of overgrown land with the ruins of a house and a spectacular sea view. Meanwhile, Maggie makes mysterious repeated trips to the Naples docks without explanation.

The crisis comes when Maggie realizes her diary gave Ringer their exact location. She races back by train, but Ringer has already broken into Bella with a knife, slashing mattresses while Connie watches in terror. Connie lures him into the tiny shower room by claiming money is hidden behind a panel. Toto bites his ankle, and Connie slams the door shut, grabs her keys, and locks herself outside the vehicle. Maggie arrives moments later, followed by Gill and Alfonso, who has been making daily visits since Gill confided the truth about Ringer. Alfonso, already on the phone with police, subdues Ringer. Officers arrest him and prepare his deportation to the UK to face robbery charges.

With the crisis resolved, the three women part. Gill announces that Alfonso has asked her to move in with him in Viareggio, where she will take Toto. Maggie reveals her trips to the Naples docks were to book passage on a freighter to Sydney, a six-week voyage to start over near her son Alistair in Melbourne. Connie accompanies Maggie to the port, and they hug goodbye.

The next day, Pozzi follows in his car as Connie drives Bella up a rough track to Marigino, the family property whose name combines Maria and her brother Gino. Among the ruins, she discovers a carved piece of the original door matching a photograph from the biscuit tin of family papers, confirming she has found her ancestral home. In the final scene, Connie sits alone at Marigino in a canvas chair, sipping wine as Andrea Bocelli plays, gazing at the Gulf of Salerno, and raising her glass to the future.