Spencer

On Christmas Eve 1991, the British royal family prepares to spend Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk. Among the attendees is Diana, Princess of Wales, whose marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales has become strained due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. The staff of Sandringham prepare for the royals' arrivals. Instead of driving with her security detail, Diana has decided to drive herself and has become lost, until she runs into Royal Head Chef, Darren McGrady. She notes that the long-abandoned neighbouring estate, Park House, was her childhood home. She then notices a scarecrow in the distance and eagerly runs towards it. Diana takes off its jacket, which once belonged to her father John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and goes back to her car. When Diana arrives at Sandringham, her sons William and Harry are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to socialise with the rest of the royal family. Diana's only friend at Sandringham is royal dresser Maggie, who encourages her to both combat the royal family and fulfil the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn (including a hallucination of her at a Christmas Eve dinner where she imagines herself destroying a pearl necklace given to her by Charles and eating the pearls in her soup), eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost is haunting her as a fellow abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her childhood home, but is stopped by royal guards who initially mistake her for an intruder. On Christmas Day, Diana attends a service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, where she notices Camilla among the gathered crowd and is photographed by numerous intrusive journalists. She holds a difficult conversation with Charles, who rebuffs her concerns over William and Harry's participation in a pheasant shoot the next day, and advises her to develop a stronger sense of separation between her public and private lives. Charles privately arranges for Maggie to be sent to London and spreads rumours that she had planted the Boleyn book in Diana's room and made critical comments about her mental health; McGrady denies that she had done so when Diana questions him. Major Gregory attempts to encourage Diana to conform to the pressures of royal life by reminding her that the soldiers of the British Army die trying to protect the interests of the Crown (and by extension her interests). Diana responds by stating that she never asked anyone to die for her and accuses him of planting the Boleyn book in her room as a warning, which he denies. After imagining wounding herself with a pair of wire cutters given to her by McGrady, Diana avoids the formal Christmas Day dinner, and instead runs to her childhood home and gains access with the wire cutters. Memories of her happier childhood overtake her, and she dances from room to room while imagining her younger self. She considers taking her own life by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, but the hallucinations of Boleyn stop her. Instead, she rips apart her pearl necklace. On Boxing Day, Diana wakes up in her room to find that Maggie has been called back from London. The two travel to a nearby beach, where Diana talks about her mental and marital problems. Maggie responds by confessing that she is in love with Diana. After bidding Maggie farewell, Diana goes to the pheasant shoot, walks out in front of the crowd of hunters, and announces that she is taking William and Harry to London, to which Charles reluctantly agrees. Diana bids farewell to McGrady and Major Gregory returns the Boleyn book to the library. As they drive away, Diana and her children sing along to the song "All I Need Is a Miracle" by Mike and the Mechanics, passing the scarecrow which is now dressed in one of Diana's outfits. They drive to London, where they order KFC and eat by the River Thames. Diana looks across the river, uncertain of her future but no longer feeling burdened by royal responsibility.

Plot from Spencer (film)CC BY-SA 4.0