Introduction:

The film begins close to the end of the story, when the suspects get caught and are interrogated. Then it flashes back to three years earlier and the film proceeds forward from there interspersed with occasional bits from the interrogation.

Three years before getting caught, Bridget (Diane Keaton) lived a comfortable upper class life until her husband Don (Ted Danson) was fired from his position and sunk into debt. The paycheck for Selina, the cleaning lady, bounces again. Selina confronts Bridget and suggests she take a job as a janitor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

On her first day on the job, Bridget hatches a scheme to steal damaged dollar bills slated for destruction. For her team she chooses Nina (Queen Latifah), who works the dollar bill shredder, and Jackie (Katie Holmes), who takes bill carts from the Secret Service room to the shredding room. It takes some work to convince Nina to join, but Jackie joins them quickly.