故事发生在1977年的英国伦敦,一位名为谢波德(玛吉·史密斯 Maggie Smith 饰)的老太太开着她的姥爷车来到了一个位于这里的中产社区中。谢波德没有家,吃喝拉撒都在自己的车里,换句话说,在别人的眼中,她就是一名脏兮兮臭烘烘的流浪汉。 在这个社区里生活的中产们凭借着他们出色的教养容忍了谢波德女士的入侵,然而他们的善良和宽容却并没有换来谢波德太太的好脸色。这个脾气又倔又犟的老太太让生活在这里的人吃尽了苦头。久而久之,没有人再搭理谢波德太太了,除了一个看上去憨憨的剧作家阿兰(阿历克斯·杰宁斯 Alex Jennings 饰),他不仅每天都对谢波德太太笑脸相迎,甚至同意她占用自己家的车道停车。The Lady in the Van tells the true story of Alan Bennett's strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home. She stayed there for 15 years. As the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild (died 1989), a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot. She had played Chopin in a promenade concert, tried to become a nun, was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest.