A dual-timeline sequel that unfolds simultaneously in 1979 and the present day. In the past, a young Donna (Lily James) arrives on the Greek island of Kalokairi and falls into the three brief romances that will result in Sophie’s birth. In the present, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) prepares to reopen and rededicate her late mother’s beloved hotel — Donna having died between films.
Colin returns as Harry Bright, one of the three possible fathers, now settled into a domestic life sketched with warm comedy. The present-day sequences see Harry, Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) making their way to the island for the reopening — a reunion threaded through with grief for Donna.
The film’s most celebrated sequence involves Harry and Bill dancing exuberantly together on the bow of a boat to “Dancing Queen” — a Titanic-style pose that became an instant fan favourite. Cher appears memorably in the third act as Sophie’s glamorous, long-absent grandmother Ruby Sheridan.