[6] Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Adam Ant, Toyah, Jordan (a Malcolm McLaren protégé), Gene October and Jayne County.

Queen Elizabeth I is transported forward in time to the film's present day by the occultist John Dee, who commands the spirit guide Ariel (a character from William Shakespeare's The Tempest) to bring them there.

Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s and moves through the social and physical decay of the city, observing the sporadic activities of a group of aimless nihilists – mostly young women, including Amyl Nitrate, Bod, Chaos, Crabs and Mad.

Amyl Nitrate instructs a group of young women about history – in so doing, valorizing the violent criminal activity of Myra Hindley – before reminiscing about her time as a ballet dancer.

From there the group moves on to a café, where Crabs picks up a young musician called Kid, Mad tears up some postcards, and Bod attacks a waitress with a bottle of ketchup.

Finally, Ginz takes the four women off to Dorset – "the only safe place to live these days" – an unreconstructed right wing aristocratic enclave, where he signs a recording contract with the gang.

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood manufactured a T-shirt on which was printed an "open letter" to Jarman denouncing the film and his misrepresentations of punk.