The Lost Ticket

In April 1962, 22-year-old Frank boards the 88 bus in London and notices a young red-haired woman in a black beret and a man's tweed jacket. She catches him staring and teases him, but they fall into conversation. She is an art student who defied her parents to attend art school, and she sketches Frank's portrait during the ride. She tells him about Bacchus and Ariadne, a painting by Titian at the National Gallery, and they agree to meet there the following Sunday. She writes her phone number on her bus ticket and hands it to him before disembarking at Oxford Circus. When Frank arrives home, the ticket is gone. He waits at the Clapham Common bus stop for 12 hours that Sunday, but she never appears. He never learns her name.

Sixty years later, in April 2022, Libby Nicholls, a 29-year-old woman from Surrey, boards the same 88 bus. Her boyfriend of eight years, Simon, has just broken up with her. Libby moves in with her older sister, Rebecca, a corporate lawyer in north London, to help look after Rebecca's four-year-old son, Hector, while the family's nanny is away.

On the bus, Libby meets Frank, now an elderly man who mistakes her for someone because of her red hair. He encourages her to try sketching on the bus. Inspired, Libby attempts to draw a striking punk-styled man the following week, but when she tries to photograph him to continue her sketch, he catches her and confronts her angrily. She flees in humiliation.

Libby encounters Frank again and hears the full story: Meeting the red-haired artist gave him the courage to leave his parents' grocery shop and attend drama school on a full scholarship. He had a 50-year career as a theater actor but never married, though he has a daughter, Clara. For 60 years, he has ridden the 88 bus, scanning each stop for the woman he lost. Clara now wants him assessed for a care home, and Frank fears losing his independence. Libby offers to help track the woman down online but finds nothing.

Inspired by a missing-dog poster, Libby suggests papering the entire 88 route with posters describing Frank's search, complete with an email address and a social media hashtag. At Frank's home, she discovers that his carer is Dylan, the same punk she clashed with on the bus. Frank insists Dylan help with the campaign. Dylan privately warns Libby that Frank has dementia and that she must manage his expectations carefully.

Despite their antagonism, Libby and Dylan develop a working rhythm. They share personal details: Dylan dropped out of school at 16, fell into care work, and dreams of becoming a nurse. Libby reveals she wanted to be an artist but was pushed into medical school by her parents, which she hated and quit. Their hostility softens into friendship and then attraction. The search gains momentum when Esme, Dylan's friend, a young woman with Down syndrome, suggests submitting Frank's story to a newspaper column. A young man named Sunny recognizes the posters and tells them how Frank befriended him on the 88 bus years earlier when Sunny was a homeless, grieving international student; Frank's kindness inspired Sunny to persevere. A bus driver named Patience, who has known Frank since childhood, spreads the word among other drivers.

Frank takes Libby to Parliament Hill, his favorite spot overlooking London, where she breaks down crying about Simon for the first time. Later, Frank has a dementia episode, and Dylan rushes to tend to him with striking gentleness. On another outing, Libby faints in Trafalgar Square and learns at the hospital that she is 14 weeks pregnant with Simon's baby. Her pregnancy is accidentally revealed to her family, causing pain for Rebecca, whose latest round of in vitro fertilization (IVF) has just failed. When Libby tells Simon, he panics and says he wants nothing to do with the baby.

An email arrives from a woman whose elderly neighbor, Mrs. Stokes, matches the description. Frank dresses in his best suit and meets Mrs. Stokes on the 88, but she is not his woman. Deeply disappointed, he tells Libby he will stop searching and accept the care home. He brightens when Libby reveals her pregnancy and proposes a combined birthday and farewell party.

At Libby's 30th birthday dinner, Dylan confesses he wants to be part of her and the baby's life. They kiss. Minutes later, Simon arrives drunk, antagonizes Dylan, and the two nearly fight. Libby lets Simon stay because he is too intoxicated to travel, and Dylan leaves, hurt.

The next morning, Simon suggests Libby move back into his house. Then Dylan fails to appear for his care visit to Frank. Distracted during breakfast, Frank burns his hand on the grill and ends up in the hospital. Clara resolves to move Frank into a care home immediately. Libby goes to Dylan's flat, where Dylan's hostile father tells her Dylan has left with a girlfriend. At Frank's house, Frank blames Libby for everything and tells her to leave.

Esme locates Dylan at University College Hospital, beaten unconscious by strangers. At his bedside, Libby believes the girlfriend story and tells the unconscious Dylan she plans to accept Simon's offer, then whispers that she loves him. Afterward, a nurse advises her not to live with her ex if she loves someone else. Libby decides to raise the baby independently and rents a flat near Guildford. Rebecca, for the first time, stands up for Libby against their mother, Pauline, and reveals she is newly pregnant herself.

Three months later, at 34 weeks pregnant, Libby impulsively boards the 88 bus. An elderly woman gives her blunt childbirth advice, and as Libby gets off, the woman mutters the title Bacchus and Ariadne. Libby manages to track the woman down. She is Peggy, who is not Frank's girl but knows who she was: Persephone "Percy" Fitzgerald, Peggy's lifelong best friend from art school.

Libby finds Frank's house emptied and persuades him to walk up Parliament Hill one last time. There, Peggy tells Percy's story. Percy graduated top of their class, moved to New York and became a successful artist, but returned to London in the mid-1970s struggling with addiction. Peggy nursed her through withdrawal. Percy had a baby boy, Jack, who died after six days; they brought his ashes to Parliament Hill. Percy recovered, became an art teacher, and lived with Peggy for decades. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and died 12 years earlier. Peggy reveals that on the Sunday of their planned date, Percy waited all day at the National Gallery while Frank waited at the bus stop. Jack was named after Jack Kerouac, the author whose book Frank gave Percy on the bus.

Two weeks later, at Esme's wedding, Libby and Dylan clear up their misunderstandings. The "girlfriend" was Cass, a platonic friend, and Dylan's father lied deliberately. Dylan thought Libby had reunited with Simon because of what an eavesdropping hospital patient reported to him. They kiss again, and Frank watches them return inside holding hands.

Riding the 88 home from the wedding, Libby's contractions begin. Patience clears the bus and races to the hospital. Over a year later, Libby and Dylan live together in a small London flat with their daughter, Frankie. Dylan is starting a nursing course, and Simon is involved as Frankie's father on alternating weekends. Libby takes the 88 to visit Frank at his care home, where his dementia has progressed significantly. As they ride the bus together, Libby removes her hat and her red curls tumble free. Frank's face lights up. He takes her hand, mistakes her for his long-lost girl, and invites her to the National Gallery. Libby squeezes his trembling hand and agrees.