Young Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter," before it's even written. When a lovely noblewoman auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love -- and his play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship progresses, Shakespeare's comedy soon transforms into tragedy.
Joe and Sarah Marriot are a pair of European campers who have pitched their tent for a little R & R at a campsite in France.
The other families that have come to the site on holiday provide great comedy and plenty of people watching for the Marriots. Of course, you'd expect hilarity from characters dubbed the Fitness Family, Mr. and Mrs. Topless, Fatty Granada, and the In-the-Trades. But the Marriots' enjoyment of observing the outside world turns inward when the entrance of Early Bird, a free-spirited female, shakes up their little nest.
When the ailing husband of an adulterous wife is discovered bludgeoned to death and suspicions fall on the older woman's young lover, the newly widowed woman claims that it was she who was solely responsible for the death despite evidence that points to the contrary in this dramatic account of true-life 1935 trial that shocked all of England. Though notable evidence and strong suspicion suggests that the murder may have been of crime of passion perpetrated by the jealous lover only half her age, Alma Rattenbury (Helen Mirren) confesses to the murder of her husband and is soon brought to trial. Despite the fact that Alma is already being deemed guilty by the general public for her adulterous indiscretion alone, her lawyer, star attorney T.J. O'Connor (David Suchet), remains convinced that his client will eventually be cleared of all charges.
