Roger Gallais, a small time hustler, is in a desperate fight to save his office/home from demolition. He needs $1500 in 24 hours or his estranged wife Lola Montezuma, an illegal alien, and her new boyfriend Nobby Carlyle, a fugitive from British justice, will take procession of the property, turn it into a mini mall and make a million bucks. Roger and his sole employee, Jules, are at the end of their rope, when Wanda Harrington, a naive middle-aged woman from Texas enters. She has just inherited the family oil fortune and is in Los Angeles to find her long lost lover, Henry, who she hasn't seen or heard from in 25 years. Roger reinvents himself and becomes a private detective specializing in missing persons cases and guarantees he will find Henry in one hour. Hilarious results ensue, involving Harvey Martin, 'Gay Activist' who is running for mayor of West Hollywood, and wants to turn the city into a living 'Camelot' and Shelly Levine, a failed New York standup comic who hates Los Angeles.