The Devil Wears Prada (film) - Plot

Plot

Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is an aspiring journalist fresh out of Northwestern University. Despite ridiculing the shallowness of the fashion industry, she lands the job "a million girls would kill for": junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the icy editor-in-chief of Runway fashion magazine. Andy puts up with Miranda's bizarre and humiliating treatment in hopes of getting a job as a reporter or writer somewhere else.

At first, Andy fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her gossipy, fashion-conscious coworkers, especially Miranda's senior assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt). However, with the help of art director Nigel (Stanley Tucci), who loans her designer clothes, she gradually learns her responsibilities and begins to dress more stylishly. She also meets attractive young writer Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), who offers to help her with her career. As she spends increasing amounts of time at Miranda's beck and call, problems arise in her relationships with her college friends and her boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier), a chef working his way up the career ladder.

One day, Andy saves Miranda from being embarrassed by Emily at a charity benefit, and Miranda rewards her by offering to take her to the fall fashion shows in Paris instead of Emily. Andy hesitates to take this privilege away from Emily, but she is forced to accept the offer after being told by Miranda that she will lose her job if she declines. Later, Emily is hit by a car and Andy faces the task of having to break the Paris news to her.

When Andrea tells Nate she will be going to Paris, he is angered by her refusal to admit she's become what she once ridiculed, and they break up. Once there, Nigel tells Andy that he has gotten a job as creative director with rising fashion star James Holt (Daniel Sunjata), at Miranda's recommendation. Miranda, without makeup, opens up to Andy about the effect Miranda's impending divorce will have on her daughters. Andy finally succumbs to Christian's charms, and after spending the night with him, Andy learns from him about a plan to replace Miranda with Jacqueline Follet as editor of Runway. Despite the suffering she has endured at her boss's behest, she attempts to warn Miranda.

At a luncheon later that day, however, Miranda announces that it is Jacqueline instead of Nigel who will leave Runway for Holt. Later, when the two are being driven to a show, she explains to a still-stunned Andy that she was grateful for the warning but already knew of the plot to replace her and sacrificed Nigel to keep her own job. Pleased by this display of loyalty, she tells Andy she sees some of herself in her. Andy, repulsed, said she could never do to anyone what Miranda did to Nigel, primarily as Nigel mentored Andy. Miranda replies that she already did, stepping over Emily when she agreed to go to Paris. When they stop, Andy gets out and throws her cell phone into the fountain of the Place de la Concorde, leaving Miranda, Runway, and fashion behind.

Later, back in New York, she meets Nate for breakfast. He has accepted an offer to work as a sous-chef in a popular Boston restaurant. Andy is disappointed, but her hope is rejuvenated when he says they could work something out. At the film's conclusion, she is interviewing for a newspaper job. The interviewer reveals that Miranda told him she was by far her biggest disappointment, but that he would be an idiot not to hire her. In the last scene, Andy, dressed casually but with a bit more style, sees Miranda getting into her car across the street. They exchange looks and Miranda gives a soft smile once inside the car.