Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.

War threatens London as Miss Pettigrew, a destitute governess, filches a client's card from her agency and presents herself at the door. A singer named Delysia Lafosse wants a social secretary as she seeks a West End role by sleeping with a feckless producer in the bed of Nick, a smarmy nightclub owner with whom she also dallies. She ignores Michael, her piano player, who loves her and has tickets for New York on the Queen Mary. Miss Pettigrew's job is to make sure Delysia gets the part. Over 24 hours, Miss Pettigrew is also called upon to help an ambitious and unfaithful fashion editor patch things up with her older fiancé, a lingerie designer. Has Miss Pettigrew found her calling?—<[email protected]>

In London in the beginning of World War II, the middle-aged Miss Guinevere Pettigrew is unemployed and hunger after being fired by her alcoholic employer. The social assistant refuses to offer another employment to her but Miss Pettigrew grabs the address of the American actress and singer Delysia Lafosse on her desk and heads to Delysia's fancy apartment. Soon she befriends and is hired by Delysia, a beautiful woman that manipulates her two lovers to live comfortably, sing in a nightclub and be cast for a play. Miss Pettigrew helps Delysia to resolve her affairs and learn that she has a true love, a poor piano player that has invited her to move to New York with him. Meanwhile Miss Pettigrew meets the lingerie designer Joe Blomfield, who seems to be attracted to her.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

London, 1939. Middle-aged spinster Guinevere Pettigrew, whose attitudes and behavior are shaped by being a vicar's daughter, may not have the correct temperament for her chosen field of governess, having just been fired for the third time for not following the orders of her employer, right or wrong, she leaving this most recent employ out of circumstance with no money and only the "funereal" clothes on her back. With this a third strike, her employment agent, Miss Holt, refuses to represent her anymore. Desperate for another governess job if only to put food into her stomach, Miss Pettigrew, on a few mistruths, is able to finagle her way into the employ of flighty and disorganized American Delysia Lafosse, who Miss Pettigrew eventually learns the hard way is not wanting a governess but rather a social secretary for which Miss Pettigrew has no experience. Delysia, a singer, is trying to break onto the West End stage if only as a springboard to Hollywood stardom in films. The role of Delysia's social secretary, at least in this first day, is to manage her sex life, she having three men on the go: Nick Calderelli, the owner of the nightclub where she performs in a cabaret act and in whose lavish flat she lives; impresario Phil Goldman who is considering her as the lead for his next West End musical; and Michael Pardue, her penniless pianist in the cabaret act, he who has just been released from prison. An associated side job which Miss Pettigrew has no other option but to accept is for Delysia's acquaintance Edythe Dubarry, an upscale ladies fashion retailer who wants Miss Pettigrew to convince, without he not not knowing that he is being manipulated, her on again/off again - currently off again - boyfriend, ladies undergarment designer Joe Blomfield, to reenter into their called off engagement. Miss Pettigrew doing this task is despite she knowing that Edythe's interest in Joe is more professional than personal. Miss Pettigrew, working on Delysia's directive, may have her own views on what, or more precisely who, she should do as the one and only. In the process, Miss Pettigrew may also have some views on what she is doing for Edythe. The imminent war, which had been in the back of the minds of the general populace, becoming more of a reality may factor into what happens with this collective.—Huggo

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand star in this charming comedy about finding a new life and a new love, all in one day. When Miss Pettigrew (McDormand) stumbles upon the chance to become the new "social secretary" to glamorous high-society singer and actress Delysia Lafosse (Adams) she seizes the opportunity despite being totally out of her element. Swept up into the glamorous whirl of high society, it's all Miss Pettigrew can do to keep up with Delysia as she juggles her love life and career in this delightful champagne cocktail of a comedy.