A young journalist comes from Nice to Paris to meet with the famous judge, Simon, hoping he will help her understand a case. She does not know that, according to the will of fate, in the office of judge was fugitive criminal. The couple hit the road.
Carlo Monte, a seductive pizza maker in charge of a straw hut on the beaches of the south of France, is contacted by barbouzes who notice his perfect resemblance to President-General Gonzales Y Ramirez, president for life of Malaguenia. Supposed to replace the dictator on a private visit to France and to announce his abdication in favor of the insurgents, he had them arrested and established democracy. As for the deposed tyrant, he found himself in charge of Carlo's straw hut with somewhat militarized colors.
Chronic serial womanizer Stephane Margelle drops his wife Sophie off at the airport so she can go away for Easter weekend. He immediately picks up beautiful young Julie, who has just had a fight with her married boyfriend. He gets her back to his apartment and is preparing for a sexy weekend, when his wife suddenly returns home. He makes up a bizarre, on-the-spot, spur-of-the-moment story that the gorgeous girl is actually his long-lost daughter. Julie plays along, but this leads to a whole series of increasingly ridiculous lies and comical situations (such as when her real mother shows up).
The story (based on a novel by James Hadley Chase) concerns the efforts of the genial and deceptively tentative Lepski (Michael Brandon), an insurance company detective, to track down a valuable medieval Russian icon, which was stolen by Bradley (David Carradine), a master thief.
The renowned Insurance International Co. has created an enquiry network, headed by detective Jack Clementi, to defend itself against insurance fraud. Jack has saved the company enormous amounts of money throughout his successful investigations and his bosses are more than willing put up with his brusque manners, his disconcerting frankness, and his intolerance for any form of company bureaucracy. Yet he is a big guy with a huge heart.