Sofia (Shabana Azmi) is a disillusioned Bangladeshi woman in her 50s who has lived in a council tenement block near Brick Lane since coming to England as a young bride. Her elderly Bangladeshi husband Shafiq (Renu Setna) feeling marginalised by his spouse's attendance of yoga classes, goes back to Bangladesh for a holiday and returns after a year with a pregnant teenage bride.
Divorce is severely frowned upon by the local community and Sofia feels she has to stay with her husband, however, she is far from sure if she can live with these new marital arrangements. Sofia decides not to put up with the humiliation of this new lodger and opts instead for a divorce.
Aided by her trendy daughter Afshan (Preeya Kalidas), Sofia weighs up her options and comes to the decision on a women's community-centre day trip to a stately home with Joolie (Shobu Kapoor) and Nazreen (Shelley King), where she chances upon the ghost of an oppressed English lady of the manor.