Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second most useful detective to search for him personally. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the entire world's hardest detective, NYPD Sgt. Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh obtusely bungles his way past corrupt and assassins officials though he were the American cousin of Clouseau.