After the death of her husband, Elizabeth (Judi Dench) ponders her life anew, and comes to believe that her happiest days were as a schoolgirl in World War II, when she played saxophone with the Blonde Bombshells. To the horror of her grown-up children, she unpacks her sax and teams up with a street performer in a London plaza. Her past, pictured in flashbacks, rises up before her when she's approached by charming rascal Patrick (Ian Holm), who used to dress in drag to play drums for the Bombshells in order to avoid going to war -- and also in order to seduce its members one by one.  At the urging of her granddaughter Joanna, Elizabeth decides to reunite the band, and she and Patrick set out to find the remaining band members.  It is not an easy task. Annie (June Whitfield) has devoted her trombone-playing to Jesus in the Salvation Army; Betty (Joan Sims) and Gwen (Cleo Laine) still perform, but have recovered from bad marriages - both to Patrick; Evelyn (Billie Whitelaw) is in jail; Dinah (Olympia Dukakis) remains perpetually boozed up in her rich late husband's Scottish castle; and Madeline (Leslie Caron) is almost impossible to find.  As they seek out the others one by one, Elizabeth and Patrick engage in an ongoing, and refreshingly adolescent, flirtation.

"Dench and Holm are perfect together, and Elizabeth's attraction to the irrepressibly untrustworthy Patrick remains sweetly engaging."  Variety