Rabbi Jacob Marcel Dalio is a beloved New York rabbi who, upon receiving an invitation from the Schmolls to celebrate the bar mitzvah of young David, flies back to his homeland after more than thirty years away. He’s accompanied by his young friend Rabbi Samuel, and the pair drift into a story that blends warmth with comic misadventure.
In Normandy, the affluent and irascible Victor Pivert [Louis de Funès] is also bound for a family wedding—the day after his daughter, Antoinette [Miou-Miou], will wed. Pivert’s temper and prejudices color every encounter, and a car accident leaves his vehicle overturned in a lake. After the crash, Salomon [Henri Guybet], his driver, is dismissed because the Sabbath has begun, a decision that fuels the simmering tension between them.
Meanwhile, Arab revolutionary leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane [Claude Giraud] is kidnapped by killers loyal to his government. The operation goes awry when the team, led by Farès [Renzo Montagnani], moves Slimane under cover to avoid capture. The same bubble gum factory that hosts this covert transfer becomes the backdrop where Pivert, seeking help, inadvertently assists Slimane, leaving behind two corpses that draw the attention of the police.
The next day, Slimane compels Pivert to accompany him to Orly airport for a flight to Slimane’s country, hoping the revolution will crown him president. They are trailed by an entangled mix of characters: the jealous Germaine [Suzy Delair], Pivert’s wife who suspects her husband’s fidelity; Farès and his henchmen; and the overly suspicious Commissioner Andreani [Claude Piéplu], who treats Pivert as if he were a criminal mastermind.
As the pursuit tightens, Farès and his crew manage to kidnap Germaine and interrogate her using dentist equipment, complicating an already tangled day. To throw their pursuers off the scent, Slimane and Pivert disguise themselves—attacking two rabbis in the toilet, stealing their clothes, and shaving their beards and payot. The disguises are so convincing that the Schmoll family mistake them for Rabbi Jacob and Rabbi Samuel. The only one who seems to sense something is Salomon, who recognizes Pivert, his former employer, behind the disguises.
With the polyglot Slimane at the helm of the act, the pair even delivers a Hebrew sermon and performs a high-spirited Hasidic dance, turning a tense escape into a memorable sequence that blends farce with faith. The trail of misunderstandings continues as the police and the pursuing Farès faction misread the situation, painting Pivert and Slimane as terrorists in the eyes of the Jewish community.
Eventually, the real Rabbi Jacob arrives at Orly, only to be mistaken for Victor Pivert by both law enforcement and Farès’s henchmen, a confusion that tests the limits of identity, loyalty, and luck. The film builds toward a chaotic yet sweeping finale that reconciles the different worlds—New York, Paris, the Schmolls, and the men who drive the wild, humor-filled plot toward its ultimately hopeful ending.
