Andy Sachs, Anne Hathaway is a bright, ambitious recent graduate who lands a grueling gig at Runway, the iconic fashion magazine, hoping to break into journalism. She attends an awards ceremony with her Vanguard colleagues, only to learn by text that the entire team has been let go. Despite the shock, she stays to collect her award and delivers an impassioned speech about the enduring importance of journalism, signaling that her career—and her conscience—are about to be tested in unexpected ways.
At Runway, the magazine’s formidable editor, Miranda Priestly, Meryl Streep unwinds the fallout from a sensational scandal accusing the company of endorsing a sweatshop line called SpeedFash. She’s not alone in this crisis: her trusted ally, Nigel, Stanley Tucci, works by her side, and a new assistant, Amari, Simone Ashley, tries to prove herself as the newest “Emily.” Miranda is also now married to Stuart Kenneth Branagh, a detail that rattles some of the Runway power dynamics as the crisis unfolds. Irv Ravitz, the magazine’s chairman, calls with urgency to handle the debacle, and his son Jay B.J. Novak is quick to share a video of Andy’s viral speech, setting off a chain of events that will pull Andy back into Runway’s orbit.
Andy returns home to a cramped apartment and leans on her friend Lily Tracie Thoms for support. Irv reaches out with an offer: return to Runway in the Features department to help Miranda steer through the storm. Her colleagues urge her to take the opportunity, and soon she’s back in the magazine’s orbit, reuniting with Nigel, though Miranda barely remembers her as “one of the Emilys.” The trio—Andy, Miranda, and Nigel—head to Dior for a tense negotiation that pits fashion business against personal history. Emily, now at Dior, is surprised to see her old colleagues in new roles, and she pushes for Runway to advertise for Dior as a lifeline to keep the magazine afloat.
Back in the office, Andy meets Charlie The Chair [Caleb Hearon] and her own assistant Jin Chao [Helen J Shen]. The office vibe has shifted: Runway is more digital than ever, and even Miranda must resort to short-form pieces and clickbait to compete. Andy stays late writing pieces intended to sway public opinion back toward Runway, though she senses the complex web of gratitude—and resentment—between Miranda and Emily. When Andy bets on getting a real interview with Sasha Barnes [Lucy Liu], she must hustle beyond routine meetings to secure a conversation with the divorcee who controls a substantial fortune. Emily reveals her own complicated life, including a divorce and two kids, and hints at fashion’s evolving value in retail, even joking about Andy’s eyebrows.
A new romance blooms as Lily helps Andy search for a better apartment. They meet Peter [Patrick Brammall], a designer who catches Andy’s eye, and the two share a spark that offers a glimpse of stability outside the magazine’s maelstrom. Meanwhile, the Runway crew finally lands the “holy grail” interview with Sasha, and Andy and Miranda travel to Sasha’s villa for a sit-down that is both revealing and carefully staged. Sasha shows she’s happier post-Benji Barnes and gives Runway the green light to break the news, hinting at both personal liberation and professional leverage for Miranda.
Meanwhile, Talia [Rachel Bloom] from The Vanguard talks to a publisher about a tell-all book on Miranda, but she’s afraid of Miranda’s retaliation. Over the weekend, Miranda invites Andy to a lake house gathering with Irv and Jay, plus celebrity guests like Jenna Bush Hager Jenna Bush Hager, and other high-profile attendees. Irv’s sudden heart attack during the party changes the trajectory of everything, and Jay takes over as chairman with plans to cut Runway’s costs. Jin hides her phone to record the entire discussion, revealing the brutal reality: the new leadership wants to gut Runway, and Miranda faces increasing concessions, including flying economy and tighter budgets.
As fashion week in Milan arrives, Andy schemes to broker a secret meeting between Benji Barnes and Jay to force a sale of Runway. Yet the truth comes to light when Emily admits she helped Andy as payback for Miranda pushing her toward Dior—Emily claims her goal was not loyalty but a reckoning. At a gala, Lady Gaga performs (a moment Miranda reluctantly agrees to), and Miranda prepares a big speech about Runway’s future. Instead, she lets Nigel read the prepared remarks—an act that underscores how much she has come to depend on him, even as she downplays the role he played in bringing Andy back.
Jay’s plans to “save” Runway morph into a spectacle of corporate reshaping, and the villa visit with Sasha becomes the fulcrum of the story’s turn. Sasha arrives not to crush Runway but to rescue it, offering a path forward and, crucially, vindicating Miranda’s leadership in a way Andy hadn’t anticipated. The deal ensures that Miranda receives the promotion she was promised, and Runway’s fate is momentarily secured—though not without more hard truths about ambition, loyalty, and the cost of climbing the ladder in a digital era.
Returning to New York, Andy reconnects with Peter and begins to rebuild her life outside the magazine’s relentless pressure. She also reconnects with Emily, who has dyed her hair blonde and moved on to a role with Coach after a messy split from Benji. Emily admits she once called Andy in a moment of nostalgia, and the two decide to rebuild a fragile friendship. Back at Runway, Andy steps through a warmer, more empowered door: Amari, Jin Chao, and Charlie The Chair are all promoted, and Andy learns from Nigel that it was his idea to send the video of her speech to Irv and Jay to secure her rehiring. She delivers a new article to Miranda, who reads it with a rare, quiet smile, suggesting a nuanced thaw between the two women and a path forward that blends grit with grace.
In the end, the film threads ambition and empathy into a sharper portrait of a magazine in flux. It is a story about finding your footing in a world of glamour and pressure, about navigating complex bosses and even more complex colleagues, and about discovering that true success may require changing the game from within—without sacrificing your integrity.
