Whilst looking into the drowning of a local teenager, Garda Sergeant Jack Driscoll stumbles into the middle of a national investigation into a drug trafficking ring.

How About You tells the story of Ellie (Hayley Atwell), a footloose and fearless young woman who is left in charge of a residential home owned and run by her older sister Kate (Orla Brady), over the Christmas period. Her youth and inexperience bring her into bitter conflict with the four grumpy old residents known as the 'hardcore': retired screen beauty Georgia (Vanessa Redgrave), spinster sisters Hazel (Imelda Staunton) and Heather (Brenda Fricker), and a reformed alcoholic judge, Donald (Joss Ackland). The film deals with the at times hilarious antics of these uncivilized seniors, the gradual solidarity that develops between the residents and Ellie and an unlikely romance.

Sergeant Driscoll searches for a kidnapped toddler from a dysfunctional family background. There are also two subplots involving a teacher suspected to be a paedophile and the appearance of Driscoll's father at a tribunal, the latter echoing the factual events of the long-running Morris Tribunal.