In Hong Kong, China, an elderly acupuncturist examines “The Golden Needles of Ecstasy,” an ancient statue that designates seven acupuncture points that can either incite extraordinary sexual power and vitalization, or, if used incorrectly, cause instant death. When an ailing man arrives for treatment, the doctor uses the statue’s golden needles as four young women look on. Regaining control of his hands, the patient thanks the acupuncturist, but as he leaves, two men in fire retardant suits set the room on fire with gas hoses and steal the statue. Sometime later, Felicity, an American woman, meets with Chinese gangster Lin Toa and gives him $75,000, the balance due for the stolen statue, but he demands $250,000. After she leaves in protest, Felicity meets with her friend Kwan, an antiques exporter, who claims that Lin Toa’s defiance is proof that the priceless statue is authentic. Felicity explains that she is in debt and must get the statue to her employer quickly, so Kwan refers her to his partner, Dan, who is a master thief. Later, Felicity meets Kwan at Finzie’s gambling house and Kwan asks his partner to orchestrate the heist despite the danger. When Kwan introduces Dan to Felicity, Dan claims that he wants to stay out of trouble, but he agrees to her offer of $30,000 and sex. As Dan leaves Finzie’s Bar for Lin Toa’s office he is followed by the gangster’s henchmen, and, after uncovering the statue in Lin Toa’s safe, he fights them off and jumps through the entryway that is swarming with cobras. After Dan presents the statue to Kwan and Felicity, Kwan takes it away, promising to ship it to Felicity’s employer in Los Angeles, California, by morning. Dan informs Felicity that he does not expect sex in return and, outside the office, Kwan tells him that the statue will be shipped in a ceramic oil container. Later, Dan follows Felicity to her hotel room and they make love. Meanwhile, at Finzie’s Bar, Lin Toa and his henchmen dislocate Finzie’s finger in an attempt to ascertain Dan’s whereabouts, but she screams and a fight ensues. The next morning, Dan wakes to find Felicity has disappeared without paying him. Returning to Kwan’s warehouse, Dan finds Lin Toa’s men throwing Kwan off the roof, and, after a fight, the henchmen are scared away by a police siren. In his dying words, Kwan begs Dan to take care of his mistress, Lotus. Before leaving for Los Angeles, Dan says goodbye to Finzie and, as he leaves, he is attacked by Lin Toa’s minions. A female kung fu master, Su Lin, comes to his rescue and announces that she is accompanying him to Los Angeles. On the way, Su Lin explains the significance of the statue and when Dan deducts that she is a police officer, she agrees to pay any price for it. Dan is met at the Los Angeles airport by his friend Jeff, an antiques dealer and protégé of Kwan, who reports that there was an attempted robbery of Kwan’s three oil containers. One vessel broke, but it did not hold the statue, and another was sent to the home of Felicity’s boss, Sidney Winters. As the men arrive at Dan’s hotel room, they find Felicity in the bathtub. She apologizes to Dan for leaving him in Hong Kong and says she can pay him now because a container was delivered safely. Felicity takes the men to Winters’s lavish estate, where the elderly eccentric confronts them with his guards and announces that the statue was not in the container. Dan is angered to learn that Felicity earned $300,000 for the figurine and Winters threatens to kill them if they do not procure it in twenty-four hours. When the trio leaves, Winters meets with Lin Toa in his dining room and they decide to go after Felicity. Lin Toa says that he would have sold Winters the statue for $250,000 if he had come to Hong Kong, himself, but Winters says he is averse to travel and wants the statue to prolong his life. Jeff suggests they find the third container as quickly as possible because he has clients that will pay a fortune for it. When they leave Felicity behind, she is attacked by Lin Toa’s henchmen, but Su Lin scares them away and takes Felicity with her to find Dan. At Jeff’s antique shop, the men find their colleague, Bobby, dead, and Dan attributes the murder to Lin Toa. As Su Lin and Felicity arrive, Su Lin confirms that Lin Toa is in town and Felicity promises Dan she knew nothing about his involvement with Winters. Jeff discovers the third container is at a health spa, but when they find the vessel, Lin Toa’s men show up. Lin Toa holds Felicity at gunpoint and takes the four cohorts back to Winters’s mansion. Upon cracking the container open and finding the figurine inside, Winters announces that his bodyguard, Claude, will test the statue’s powers. An acupuncturist inserts the golden needles into Claude, who is trembling with fear, and when the man dies in pain, Su Lin claims that the statue is a fake. Winters is livid, but he tells his adversaries that they are free to leave. After leaving the room, he orders Lin Toa to follow them. Back in Hong Kong, Felicity insists that she never received the $300,000, but when Dan turns away, she disappears again. Dan asks Finzie about Lotus, and she directs him to Kwan’s boat boy. The child escorts Dan through the crowded harbor as Lin Toa, who is holding Felicity hostage in his car, receives reports of Dan’s whereabouts from his spies. When Dan arrives at Lotus’s house and asks if Kwan gave her anything to hide before his death, Lotus says that she should have destroyed the statue because it makes men evil. She claims that Kwan coveted the statue because he wanted to regain his youthful vigor, but she loved him as he was. Lotus explains that Kwan had a copy of the statue made from photographs before he shipped the fake to Los Angeles. Hearing Lin Toa’s henchmen approaching, Dan runs away with the statue and jumps into the boy’s boat. As Lin Toa’s men give chase in another boat, Dan climbs aboard a ship and runs along the decks of boats landed in the harbor. When Dan returns to the dock, he sees Felicity in Lin Toa’s car. She shouts a warning, but the gangster stabs her in the side. Felicity follows an angry mob chasing after Dan and learns from Su Lin, who has arrived at the scene, that the locals were told he killed a child. Running past a storefront, Dan situates the statue on a table next to similar ornaments and, later, a man is pleased to discover it. Meanwhile, Dan climbs a fence and fends off the mob until the police announce through bullhorns that he did not kill a child. Seeing Lin Toa’s car, Dan smashes the windshield and, after giving chase, throws the gangster through a window to his death. Returning to the shop where he left the statue, Dan is angered to find it missing. He sees Su Lin escorting Felicity into an ambulance and when he runs after her, Su Lin triumphantly raises the statue above her head. She agrees to pay Dan $30,000, but when he joins Felicity in the ambulance, she scolds him for not asking for more money and asks how they will live together on such a meager amount. As they kiss, the ambulance pulls away.