In 1960s London, an elderly janitor convinces a glass-ceiling constrained executive to help him steal a handful of diamonds from their employer, the London Diamond Corporation.
London, 1960. Laura Quinn is the lone female executive at London Diamond Corporation. She is frustrated as her talents are rarely acknowledged and her less-experienced male co-workers are promoted ahead of her. She is shocked, but intrigued, when the mild-mannered night janitor, Mr. Hobbs, approaches her with a daring but simple plan to steal a handful of diamonds from the vault. Laura agrees to help, but she is soon in over her head. And it is not long before insurance investigator Mr. Finch has his eyes on her.—L. Hamre
A reporter (Natalie Dormer) enters a restaurant to interview Miss Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), the only woman to ever have been a manager at the London Diamond Corporation, for a puff piece about the first generation of women entering the workforce. Quinn places a box on the table, revealing a huge diamond, and says, "I stole it." The reporter, suddenly enthralled, assumes that Quinn has been in prison for the theft all this time. The story then flashes back to 1960, when Quinn was still employed as a manager at London Diamond Corporation. She is passed over for a promotion for the sixth time despite being intellectually superior to her male co-workers. Quinn discovers she is due to be fired from the janitor, Hobbs (Michael Caine). He offers her a place in a plot: stealing enough diamonds to make them rich, but not enough to be noticed. Knowing she is considered old by her coworkers and has few other professional prospects, she agrees. At a social event at the Company President's mansion, she finds the vault combination codes. On shakes terms, Quinn and Hobbs hatch a plan, exploiting a weakness in the new camera security system. However, Hobbs manages to lift every single diamond from the vault, almost two tons worth, and by way of a proxy, holds them for a ransom of 100 million pounds. The head of the insurance syndicate from King's Row is forced to pay the ransom, leaving him financially ruined. Quinn, having never agreed to this, now finds herself trapped. The company hires a private investigator, Mr. Finch (Lambert Wilson), to keep the matter from going public. Suspicious from the start, Finch keeps a close eye on Hobbs and Quinn. Quinn seeks to avoid capture and jail by giving the diamonds back but Hobbs refuses to negotiate. Having no idea where he has hidden them, she conceals their scheme while assisting Finch with the investigation. The situation escalates when the diamonds are not returned, and the incident is leaked to the Press. The president of London Diamond Corporation (Joss Ackland) has a heart attack due to the stress. Feeling cornered while out for a drink with Finch, Quinn runs to the bathroom and cries uncontrollably. After losing her diamond earring down the drain, she gets an idea as to how the heist could have been pulled and where the diamonds could be. After Finch excuses himself, she goes down into the sewers under the company and finds Hobbs guarding a passage. He pulls a gun on her, but she finds a huge pile of diamonds at her feet. Hobbs confesses he has no interest in the diamonds or the money and wants to ruin the head of the insurance syndicate whose deliberate delay in covering his wife's medical expenses resulted in her death many years before. The ransom is ultimately paid, and the insurance head (Derren Nesbitt) dies by suicide. Hobbs leaves. Quinn finds the rest of the diamonds and calls Finch claiming she followed a hunch. While there is questionable proof she was involved in the incident, Finch is unwilling to press charges against Quinn because he has been involved with her emotionally. While touching her lips, he tells her that the evidence against her is inconclusive. The company recovers the stolen property and implies to the press that the theft was just a rumor. The story returns to the present. Quinn tells the reporter she resigned and shortly after she received a letter from a bank in Switzerland. Hobbs apologized for involving her, saying that he had needed a disgruntled employee for access to the diamond vault, and as compensation gave her the ransom money. Quinn details how she spent the rest of her life donating all the unspent money to many different organizations and people in need.
Diamonds are mined by extremely poor miners in mostly African mines. They are cleaned, aggregated and then they change hands through multiple traders to be graded. The diamonds are then polished. Most of them end up in the vaults of the big diamond corporations who want to restrict supply and maintain the exclusivity and the premium nature of their product.
A reporter named Cassie (Natalie Dormer) enters a restaurant to interview Miss Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), the only woman who ever has been a manager at the London Diamond Corporation, for a puff piece about the first generation of women (from the 1950s and the 1960s) entering the workforce. Quinn, who is an old woman, places a box on the table, revealing a huge diamond (168 carats and extremely rare), and says, "I stole it." The reporter, suddenly enthralled, assumes that Quinn has been in prison for the theft all this time.
The story then flashes back to 1960, when Quinn was still employed as a manager at London Diamond Corporation. She is always the first to arrive at office and the last to leave.She is passed over for a promotion for the sixth time despite being intellectually superior to her male co-workers. Quinn understands the geopolitics of the diamond trade and speaks her mind at company meetings and her views on possible courses of action in face of sanctions or the Russians breaking away from the diamond alliance and creating their own supply through the other African nations. The Company President Milton Kendrick Ashtoncroft (Joss Ackland) ignores her as she is a woman. Despite the put downs, Quinn tells herself to work harder.
Quinn discovers she is due to be fired from the janitor, Hobbs (Michael Caine). Hobbs says that he overheard the President that he found Quinn's plan to be ingenious, but that the Russians won't accept the plan that Quinn recommended, unless it is kept secret among only the senior most staff.Quinn breaks into personnel files section and finds a copy of her termination letter already in her file. Quinn approaches Harold (William Scott-Masson), her classmate from Oxford, who had earlier offered her a job. But now Harold says that he cannot offer Quinn a position due to conflict of interest. He also says that London Diamond has been quietly spreading word that Quinn is incompetent and is not to be offered employment by anyone who has business with London Diamond.
Hobbs offers her a place in a plot: stealing enough diamonds to make them rich, but not enough to be noticed. Knowing she is considered old by her coworkers and has few other professional prospects, she agrees. The pass-codes to the vault are only available with MKA and longtime company loyalist Eaton (Shaughan Seymour). Hobbs says that MKA keeps the codes under his desk but now he has changed the location and speculates that the codes are kept under his work desk at his mansion.At a social event at the Company President's mansion, she finds the vault combination codes. She doesn't find anything under the desk, but spies on MKA opening his safe, and later retrieves the codes from the safe after MKA leaves.
On shakes terms, Quinn and Hobbs hatch a plan, exploiting a weakness in the new camera security system. However, Hobbs manages to lift every single diamond from the vault, almost two tons worth, and by way of a proxy, holds them for a ransom of 100 million pounds. The head of the insurance syndicate from King's Row named Sinclair (Derren Nesbitt) is forced to pay the ransom (as otherwise he would have to pay the insurance claim, which would bankrupt him and his company), leaving him financially ruined. Quinn, having never agreed to this, now finds herself trapped.
The company hires a private investigator, Mr. Finch (Lambert Wilson), to keep the matter from going public. Suspicious from the start, Finch keeps a close eye on Hobbs and Quinn. Quinn seeks to avoid capture and jail by giving the diamonds back, but Hobbs refuses to negotiate. Having no idea where he has hidden them, she conceals their scheme while assisting Finch with the investigation.
The situation escalates when the diamonds are not returned, and the incident is leaked to the Press. The president of London Diamond Corporation has a heart attack due to stress. Feeling cornered while out for a drink with Finch, Quinn runs to the bathroom and cries uncontrollably. After losing her diamond earring down the drain, she gets an idea as to how the heist could have been pulled and where the diamonds could be.After Finch excuses himself, she goes down into the sewers under the company and finds Hobbs guarding a passage. He pulls a gun on her, but she finds a huge pile of diamonds at her feet. Hobbs confesses he has no interest in the diamonds or the money and wants to ruin the head of the insurance syndicate whose deliberate delay in covering his wife's medical expenses resulted in her death many years before.
The ransom is ultimately paid, and the insurance head dies by suicide. Hobbs leaves. Quinn finds the rest of the diamonds and calls Finch claiming she followed a hunch. While there is questionable proof she was involved in the incident, Finch is unwilling to press charges against Quinn because he has been involved with her emotionally. While touching her lips, he tells her that the evidence against her is inconclusive. The company recovers the stolen property and implies to the press that the theft was just a rumor.
The story returns to the present. Quinn tells the reporter she resigned and shortly after received a letter from a bank in Switzerland. Hobbs apologized for involving her, saying that he had needed a disgruntled employee for access to the diamond vault, and as compensation gave her the ransom money. Quinn details how she spent the rest of her life donating all the unspent money to different organizations and people in need.
