霍比(达斯汀·霍夫曼 Dustin Hoffman 饰)辛辛苦苦了一辈子,终于迎来了退休的年纪。从繁忙的工作岗位返回闲适的家庭之中,霍比表面上风平浪静,但内心里始终有着隐隐的失落,很不是滋味。 一次偶然中,霍比在电梯里遇见了邻居苏维尔(朱迪·丹奇 Judi Dench 饰),一下子,他便被这个个性开朗而又热情的老太太给深深的吸引住了。霍比真真切切的感觉到,已到花甲之年的自己,再一次的坠入了爱河。虽然霍比和苏维尔常常会拉拉家常,但两人之前的关系似乎并没有什么进展。霍比在无意之中得知了苏维尔的烦恼,她所养的一只小乌龟总是长不大,霍比决定利用这个烦恼为突破口,拉近两人的关系。Lonely, ageing bachelor Mr Hoppy lives in a London flat and has two loves in his life - his balcony garden and Mrs Silver, the widow in the flat below. Sadly Mrs Silver is too fond of her tortoise Alfie to respond. Noting that Mrs Silver is perturbed that Alfie never seems to grow Mr Hoppy hatches a plan to show her how much he cares. This involves buying dozens of tortoises of increasing sizes to gradually substitute for Alfire, leading Mrs Silver to believe that a Bedouin chant - Esio Trot - is making her pet grow. However he is rumbled when one of the tortoises escapes. And, with another, brash resident vying for Mrs Silver's affections, will Mr Hoppy find happiness with the woman he loves?