Con man Eddie Dash, who must complete community service for past crimes, reluctantly takes the easiest assignment: accompanying a mentally ill patient and reformed pathological liar, George, as he tries to adjust to life outside the sanitarium.
George quickly treats Eddie as his best friend, and Eddie’s plan to ditch him at a museum backfires when George’s erratic charm spills into a new form of persistence. A comic misstep outside the museum leads to a chaotic moment where George knocks over Al Sandro, who mistakes him for millionaire brewery heir Abe Fielding, missing for five months. Al Sandro is dragged into the confusion, and the mistaken identity sets off a chain of schemes. Eddie, sensing opportunity, nudges George to maintain the ruse, and at a bustling café, the staff and patrons also recognize George as Abe. With little choice, George keeps spinning increasingly elaborate stories about his supposed disappearance.
Elaine, Abe’s wife, drags George into the [mansion] where the truth seems to stay buried for the moment, even as George struggles to tell her he is not Abe. The next morning, Eddie returns to collect George, praising his talent for deception, while George contends with the mess of his emotions—he finds himself drawn to Elaine, who remains convinced of his true identity. Rupert Dibbs, Abe’s business manager, arrives with cash and a credit card for the supposed heir, which Eddie discreetly pockets before leaving. The weight of the deception grows heavier, and when Eddie withdraws, George panics and flees back to the sanitarium for safety and sanity.
In a shocking reveal, it’s shown that Elaine is actually Mimi Kravitz, an actress hired by Rupert along with other paid performers to convince George he is Abe. Rupert, who hopes to inherit the brewery after Abe Fielding Sr.’s death, learns that Abe Sr. had an illegitimate son who is now deceased, complicating probate. His plan is simple: keep George in the role of heir to secure the brewery, and he even pays Eddie to help maintain the illusion.
Back at the mansion, George tries to win Elaine’s affection, and her feelings begin to soften. Moved by his sincerity, Elaine starts to regret the deception she’s part of. George serenades her with a quirky yodel at an Austrian restaurant, and a budding romance grows between them, deepening the peril of the lie but also the stakes for everyone involved.
Rupert pushes Eddie and Elaine to help create false medical records by taking George to doctors and a dentist. They overhear a conversation about identifying bodies through dental records and realize Rupert’s plan to murder George and claim the brewery. Rupert, eager to see the plot succeed, even tempts Eddie with a substantial sum to ensure George’s demise.
During a hunting trip, Rupert observes Eddie and George through a covert device. Instead of hunting, George uses his charm to calm animals, prompting a tense standoff. Eddie fires a gun in a panic, and it seems George is killed. At the funeral, Eddie delivers an improvised eulogy, but George reappears, revealing that they faked the death. Eddie unveils a recording of Rupert’s incriminating conversations, exposing the scheme to murder George.
Rupert tries to unmask George as an imposter, but his own actors stay in character and keep the deception alive. Enraged that George could inherit the brewery, Rupert attacks, but Eddie and Elaine subdue him and have him taken into custody. Rupert warns that living a lie will consume George, but George responds with honesty: he confesses his real identity to the crowd. Unfortunately, the crowd treats the admission as a joke, leaving George in control of the brewery with Eddie and Elaine by his side.
Sometime later, George and Elaine celebrate their wedding on a tropical beach, joined by Eddie and his girlfriend, Gloria, who is Rupert’s former secretary. The film closes on a note of compromise and partnership, with the trio moving forward to run the brewery together as they navigate the aftermath of the ruse and the complexities of truth, love, and loyalty.
