One of Harry Rawlins' robberies goes wrong, resulting in the deaths of three of the robbers. Dolly is given some keys by Harry's cousin Eddie at Harry's funeral. The police begin a search for Harry's ledgers, in which he kept all his notes on past and future robberies, as do the Fisher brothers, who were rivals. Dolly finds the ledgers, along with a gun and money, in a Harry's deposit box at the bank. The police follow Dolly around, but she gives them the slip a few times to meet up with Shirley and Linda, whose husbands also died in the explosion. They decide to carry out the robbery themselves. When Dolly returns home, she finds her house in a mess and someone in the living room.
Dolly finds Boxer Davis, who is working for the Fisher brothers, in her house when she returns home. Shirley and Linda find cars to use, but neither vehicle seems to be much good. Linda goes to a garage to get it fixed and meets the owner, Carlos, who she begins a relationship with, much to Dolly's disgust. While Linda is at work, she bumps into an old friend, Bella, to whom she tells everything, and subsequently takes her to the headquarters, calling Dolly and Shirley to go there, but it takes a while to persuade Dolly to let Bella in.
Dolly has told Boxer Davis that Harry is still alive to try to keep the Fisher brothers off their backs. Tony Fisher visits Eddie and tells him what Boxer Davis has been telling them. Later, Eddie visits Boxer and takes him out and gets him drunk, and then leaves him in a back alley - where a mysterious driver runs him down. Dolly, Linda, Bella and Shirley go up to the mountains to practise for the robbery - and an unexpected face returns from the dead.
The plan gets underway as the vehicles and the strategy are sorted out. Dolly tells Linda about Carlos' relationship with Arnie Fisher, but she doesn't believe it at first. But when she sees Carlos with Arnie Fisher, she tips off the police and they are lying in wait for him the following morning. He makes a run for it, but is killed when he runs into a post van - making Linda feel guilty about calling the police. Detective Inspector Resnick is ordered to drop the investigation and furiously resigns. Dolly gets hold of the details of the security van, and they realise they will have to do it two weeks earlier. Linda and Bella display mistrust of Dolly and Harry turns up at the hideout.
Linda gets the van for the robbery and the plan is ready to carried out. The following day they carry out the robbery, and everything runs smoothly until Shirley twists her ankle when they are escaping from the scene of the robbery. Dolly later finds Shirley desperately trying to start her car, and takes her to her house. The police suddenly turn up at Dolly's house and take her to the station to identify photographs. Eddie turns up at Dolly's house while she's still with the police, but Shirley attacks him and he breaks Dolly's dog's neck in the struggle. Dolly returns home and is devastated at the death of her dog, but soon realises that they both need to get away as soon as possible, but first she hides the money in the top of the new lockers at the convent. Shirley recognises Eddie on a photograph - and Dolly realises that Harry is still alive!
Dolly thinks up a plan to get rid of the watch on her house and get them safely out of the country. Shirley phones her mother and gets her to come to the house where Dolly tells her to put on a wig and a coat and drive out in Dolly's car, so that Eddie will follow her. Dolly and Shirley then drive off in Shirley's brother's car to the airport. Shirley asks a man to help her out because she thinks her luggage will be too heavy and gives him the money case. Meanwhile, Harry, Eddie and another man turn up at Dolly's house. While Harry and Eddie go in, the other man beats up D.I. Resnick, who is watching the house from his car. Dolly finds out on the plane that they would search anyone's bags at customs and they have to change their plan. Harry finds that Dolly has ripped up all his clothes and has burnt the ledgers. The police arrive and arrest Eddie and the other man, but Harry escapes. Dolly and Shirley arrive in Rio and Dolly goes through customs first. She has swapped her case with th
It is six months after the robbery and Dolly has returned to England and is awaiting a face-lift. Back in Rio, Shirley is packing to go to Los Angeles and Bella has got engaged. Dolly gets a P.I. to watch Trudy Nunn, who Harry was living with before he left. Harry turns up in Rio to get money from his accounts there, but he finds that Dolly has cleaned out all his accounts. One night, Bella and her fiance take Linda out, but she keeps dropping hints at Bella's past and Bella sends her home. Harry is there and, in fear of her life, Linda tells him everything. Bella returns and runs into Harry and then finds Linda beaten up in the swimming pool.
Linda and Bella have an argument, and it is overheard by Bella's fiance and he hears everything about her past. Dolly receives a letter telling her about Harry, and she rushes to hide the money somewhere else. Harry arranges his return to England, as do Bella, Linda and Shirley. Harry is met by Mickey at the airport, who he tells to follow Linda and Bella. Harry then gets someone to go to them to find out where Dolly is, but he misses Linda and beats up the woman who is staying at Bella's. The widows meet up and decide to tell Harry that they are going to make a deal and give him £60,000 to leave them alone for good, but they secretly have decided to call the police when they have given Harry the money.
Dolly, Bella, Shirley and Linda meet to go over the plan for the handover. Linda makes a dummy to use in her car and Micky fixes it for Shirley to join a modeling company. Shirley's mother tells her that she is pregnant, which takes Shirley's mind off the plan. Linda leaves and gets a gun, which Dolly has ordered her not to do. Dolly phones Harry and tells him where to meet her. When she is about to hand over the money, Linda and Bella arrive late and Harry rushes to leave, running Linda over and killing her. When Dolly finds out that Harry has killed Linda, she goes to his old house with the gun, but he isn't there. The P.I., Vic Morgan, arrives and finds her standing outside with the gun.
Vic Morgan goes to see D.I. Resnick at the hospital and tells him what he has found out so far. Bella tells Shirley that Linda is dead. Dolly and Bella find out that Harry is going to do another robbery when they go to the hideout to look for Dolly's book. Bella rents the lockup next door to keep an eye on how the robbery plan is progressing. Harry and Micky pay a visit to Arnie Fisher and get ""permission"" to use his club for a party. Morgan visits Dolly and asks her out to lunch and overhears her crying. The police catch up with Sunny, the fence for the money.
The party at the Fishers' club is used by Harry to get people involved in the robbery. The police turn up, but Micky pretends that they were invited to stop them ruining things. Shirley comes face to face with Harry on the stairs in the club. Morgan turns up at Dolly's house and takes her to his boat, which she doesn't like in the least. She ends up getting his coat overboard. Dolly and Bella find out that Shirley is working at Amanda's Night Club and when the robbery will take place. Dolly sends Morgan a new coat and Harry secures the plans for the robbery.
Dolly and Bella go to the lockup and find out that the robbery will be carried out earlier than they thought. They rush to phone the police and race to the club, but they are already there. They go in and hold up the staff and the models and take the jewellery. Shirley gets shot by Micky and he makes a run for it, but Dolly and Bella follow him and he is injured in a collision with a lorry - and is later shot by Harry. Bella leaves the country for Los Angeles and Dolly hides the diamonds, but she's also got a surprise in store for Harry.
Dolly Rawlins has served her eight years and is due for her release from Holloway Prison. Ester Freeman has a plan to get the money from the diamonds Dolly hid away and she invites other ex-convicts to the Grange Health Farm to get them in on the plan. Audrey, Shirley's mother, blames Dolly for Shirley's death, and tells her son to try to get her for the diamond robbery, but later tells him she has the diamonds herself. Dolly tells the women that her dream is to build a home for unwanted children and battered wives. Ester makes Dolly an offer to buy the house - and Dolly contacts the fence.
Dolly buys the house off Ester and arranges to meet the fence, Jimmy Donaldson, but unknown to her, the police are listening in. Dolly applies to get permission to make the Grange Health Farm into a children's home. She finds out that Ester used to run it as a prostitute's home. Ester and Angela set out to collect the diamonds, but then Dolly finds out that Donaldson should be in prison. They rush to his house and escape the police, but end up running down Donaldson and Dolly takes the diamonds off him. As Ester is packing to leave, Dolly walks in and shows them the diamonds, that are supposedly worth £6,000,000.
Dolly goes to see an old friend with the diamonds and he tells her that they are fakes he made for someone. Dolly visits Audrey, who tells her that she got £500,000 for the diamonds, most of which was spent on a villa in Spain. Dolly is annoyed and demands that Audrey get her the money. Social services visit the manor, but Dolly isn't there, and they find the rest of the women naked in the sauna and showers. Dolly tells the girls that the diamonds are fakes, but they will have to rely on the children's home working out, but then her application is later turned down. Ester leaves when she realises there will be no money, but is then attacked in a parking lot. Connie's boyfriend turns up and starts looking for her. Ester returns to the manor and Dolly goes out in the woods and finds Connie's boyfriend dead. She gets an idea for a new robbery - on the mail train.
Dolly begins to plan her next robbery. She asks Julia to find out where the nearest stable is and asks Connie to get friendly with the man at the railway station. Dolly and Julia take Connie's boyfriend's body to the graveyard and bury him under a grave prepared for the next day, while Ester and Gloria take the guns to be fenced. The police turn up at the manor and arrest Kathleen when she makes a run for it, but they don't find anything on the others. Dolly reveals to the women that she's planning a robbery and that they need to do it on horseback.
The women begin riding lessons and some of them get information on the railway and its security system. Dolly uses Shirley's brother, D.S. Mike Withey, to get information on the security and running of the mail train. Gloria and Connie dig out the sess pit, as they are waiting for the lime to arrive. Dolly gets information off Mike that the mail train will change its route in three weeks, meaning that the robbery will have to take place within that time. Dolly outlines the plan to them and tells them that the money on the mail train will be between £30,000,000 and £40,000,000. Each of them is nervous, but they all decide to stay in.
Dolly finds out that the train will only be running on the same route only once more, meaning they only have the one chance the next day. They run over the plan again and make sure that everything is ready. The following night, they set out to commit the robbery. As they are taking out the money, the carriage starts to slip down into the lake and Connie gets trapped inside. Dolly gets back inside and helps Connie out. They get back to the house and quickly clear up and hide the money. When the police turn up, they find nothing when they search. D.I. Craig later arrives with complaints about the bill for repairs on the house. Ester finds a passport and tickets in Dolly's bedroom and overhears her agreeing to make a deal for half the money, but she thinks Dolly is making a deal with the police about the robbery.