Marcus Pendleton, Peter Ustinov, is released from prison for embezzlement and steps into a world increasingly driven by computers. He convinces computer programmer Caesar Smith, Robert Morley, to chase a lifelong dream of moths in the Amazon, and by assuming Caesar’s identity he lands a job at Tacanco, a large American conglomerate with London offices. Once inside, Pendleton uses the company’s computer systems to issue claim cheques to himself under a variety of aliases and addresses across Europe. The cheques travel to Paris under the name of the dead composer Claude Debussy and to Italy under Gioachino Rossini, among other destinations, as Pendleton weaves a web of small, clever deceptions that keep his true winnings hidden.
Heavily involved in the charade, he meets and marries Patty Terwilliger Smith, Maggie Smith, an inept secretary with aspirations as a flautist. As Caesar Smith, Pendleton now has an impulse to protect his illicit gains, even as he builds a domestic life with Patty. Yet the fraud cannot stay hidden forever, and the tension rises as Tacanco’s executives begin to sniff out irregularities. The two key figures in the company, Willard C. Gnatpole, Bob Newhart, a skeptical vice president, and Carlton J. Klemper, Karl Malden, another Tacanco executive, press for answers, their suspicions growing louder as the money trail becomes harder to trace.
A dramatic turn sends Pendleton and Patty on the run to Brazil after Klemper and Gnatpole follow their clues to Rio. In a surprising twist, a pregnant Patty discovers the loose change from Pendleton’s overseas forays and uses it to invest in Tacanco’s own companies—some of the very ventures Pendleton had spoken of in his sleep—turning the profits into something almost legitimate for the company. Patty proposes a way to repay the stolen funds by offering to sell the stock back at a reduced price, a move that hints at a kind of reconciliation between Pendleton and the world he plundered.
Back in England, Patty’s plan culminates in a bold appeal: she urges Klemper to rehire Pendleton as Tacanco’s treasurer, arguing that the former embezzler, now in a position of responsibility, could better detect fraud than anyone else. Pendleton, uneasy about his new legal status but drawn by the chance to redeem himself, agrees to the arrangement, hoping to stage a return to normal life while keeping the money under control.
The final act shifts toward a personal dream come true as Pendleton conducts an orchestra, with Patty, still pregnant, serving as the solo flautist. In the audience, Gnatpole and Klemper watch with a mixture of relief and concern as Patty’s performance peaks. When she finishes the solo, she senses the baby’s arrival, and Pendleton leans in with a wary, intimate question that frames the film’s tentative balance between crime, conscience, and family:
> What, now?
