Plot summary

Four lifelong best friends, the "Flossy Posse", have grown distant over the years. When lifestyle guru Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) who is dubbed "the next Oprah" is offered an opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Music Festival she decides to bring along her friends to turn her work vacation into a girls' trip.Joining Ryan is Sasha (Queen Latifah) who owns a floundering gossip site, Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) a nurse and uptight mom who hasn't had a boyfriend since her divorce years earlier, and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) a happy-go-lucky impulsive party animal who is currently unemployed after assaulting a fellow employee.While on the trip Sasha is sent a tip that shows a picture of an African American man's head kissing an Instagram model, presumed to be Ryan's husband Stewart. The friends are reluctant to tell Ryan, but when Dina spills the news, Ryan shocks them by telling them she is already aware of the situation and that they are in couple's counseling. Nevertheless, when Dina sees Stewart at their hotel, she threatens him with a bottle resulting in her getting ejected and banned from the hotel. In solidarity all the girls leave with her, but the only hotel they're able to get is a sleazy one-star motel frequented by prostitutes.The ladies go to Essence Fest where they run into Julian, another old friend, and Malik, a young man who spotted Lisa earlier in the crowd. After the concert Ryan comes on sexually to Julian, who nicely rejects her, since she's still married. He gives up his suite so that the women have somewhere decent to stay. Meanwhile Lisa takes Malik with her intending to have sex with him, but stops as she's intimidated by the size of his penis.Ryan hosts a cooking demonstration with Stewart that goes awry when Simone, his mistress shows up. Nevertheless, a potential investor is impressed, and a business meeting is set up for Ryan and Stewart with their agent, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, right before Dina serves the women Absinthe which causes them to hallucinate. At her meeting Ryan thinks the waitress is Stewart's mistress, Lisa thinks her kids are at the club with her, Dina thinks she's flying, and Sasha thinks she's making out with an attractive man who is actually a lamp. The girls eventually pull Ryan out of the meeting though they leave behind her agent who is also hallucinating having drunk the absinthe with them.The girls decide to go to a club to dance off the absinthe where they run into Stewart's mistress and have a dance off before getting in a bar fight. They are rescued by Julian who picks them up before they can get arrested and take them back to their hotel.Ryan and Stewart are offered a massive deal from chain store Bestmart, who want to use them as spokespeople. Ryan goes out to celebrate with her girls, going to one of Julian's shows. While there Stewart's mistress shows up and tells Sasha that she's pregnant and that Stewart has stopped returning her calls. She offers to give Sasha's blog exclusive content to her affair with pictures as well. Stewart once again goes to Ryan to convince her to stay with him to finalize their deal. Nevertheless, his mistress goes public, and when she does Ryan lashes out at Sasha accusing her of being the one who leaked the pictures. The fight spills out into the relationship of all the women and they all part on bad terms.Dina and Lisa make up quickly. After Sasha takes down her blog, disgusted with the celebrity gossip racket, Dina and Lisa reunite with her and the three of them get together to go rescue Ryan who has decided to stay with Stewart through the scandal.Ryan begins to give her keynote speech and deny that the picture of Stewart and his mistress is real. When her friends walk into the room and Ryan sees them, she realizes she has to stay true to herself and turns her speech around revealing that Stewart has cheated on her and she wants to stay true to herself. The speech is a massive success and when the women reunite after the show Ryan apologizes to Sasha. Ryan's agent arrives and tells Ryan that the deal with Bestmart is still on but with her alone. Ryan decides to take Sasha with her as her business partner the way they planned to be years ago.