The Yellow Rolls-Royce

Charles, Marquess of Frinton, buys a stunning yellow Rolls-Royce as a belated 10th wedding anniversary present for Eloise. The luxury car signals his status and cements their place in high society. Its presence foreshadows the later upheavals surrounding their marriage.

The Frintons attend the race where the horse 10th June is the favourite for the Ascot Gold Cup. The horse wins, and King George V presents the Gold Cup to Lord Frinton. The public triumph contrasts with the private tensions simmering beneath the surface.

Charles discovers Eloise with her lover, John Fane, in flagrante in the back of the Rolls with its shades drawn. He refuses divorce, choosing to preserve appearances, and orders the chauffeur to return the car to Hooper. This act marks the end of the Rolls’ aristocratic chapter and the start of its traveling life.

With the old life behind it, the Rolls begins a long, unpredictable journey as it travels beyond England. Its next owners will take it into Europe and beyond, linking wealth and danger through a single car. The vehicle becomes a passport to a series of uneasy adventures.

In Genoa, Italy, the Rolls is shown at the Genova Auto Salon after covering many miles. It is purchased by American gangster Paolo Maltese, who brings Mae Jenkins and Joey Friedlander along as companions. The car enters a new chapter as a tool of crime and travel rather than aristocratic prestige.

Maltese returns to Miami on a contract hit, leaving Friedlander to supervise Mae Jenkins. Mae falls for Stefano, a handsome street photographer they had met earlier in Pisa, signaling a shift in loyalties. Friedlander tolerates the evolving romance while continuing to keep an eye on Mae and Maltese.

The bully Maltese travels back to Italy and tries to ambush Mae as she pursues Stefano, but Friedlander covers for her. Mae, though fond of Stefano, chooses to remain with Maltese. The Rolls’ perilous journey through Europe intensifies as loyalties fracture and reunite.

After a turbulent Italian interlude, the Rolls is loaded onto a cargo ship, its next destination obscured from the viewer’s eye. The voyage marks a new phase as the car slips deeper into a global web of crime and survival. Its exact whereabouts become a mystery until later scenes reveal another chapter.

In Trieste, just before the invasion, the Rolls—still in a repair shop—is bought by Gerda Millett, a wealthy American widow bound for an audience with the Yugoslavian King. Davich, an anti-royalist who loves his country, commandeers the car to slip past the border and the two fall in love. Together they drive toward danger, with Millett rescuing villagers and delivering them to a mountain camp.

Millett drives through bombings and dangerous terrain to help evacuate villagers to a partisan camp. She survives a German bombing in Ljubljana and continues aiding people, convinced that she can contribute despite the danger. Davich’s plea for her return to America complicates their relationship.

Some years later, the Rolls is seen driving along the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York, passing beneath signs for I-95 and the George Washington Bridge. The closing credits roll, and the film leaves its intermediate life skipped, keeping the car’s future shrouded in mystery. The car’s ongoing wanderings become a symbol of mobility and secrecy.

With the ending on the Henry Hudson Parkway, only the most recent chapter is shown, while the car’s future remains unknown. The film implies the Rolls continues to drift through unseen histories and hidden lives. Viewers are left to imagine the next owners and the stories that might have followed.