In Newcastle, England, the city celebrates America Week while Brendan, a young Irishman, applies for a position as a janitor at the Key Club. The club’s owner, Finney, hires Brendan and orders him to pick up The Krakow Jazz Ensemble, a Polish band scheduled to perform the following evening. As Brendan drops the band at the Royal Station Hotel, American businessman Francis Cosmo arrives to oversee the final preparations for a luncheon celebrating his upcoming city development deal. To insure the deal will go through, Cosmo telephones an American employee, Kate, to attend the luncheon and seduce City Councilor John Perry. After she reluctantly agrees, Kate goes to her new waitress job at Weegee’s restaurant, where she happens to wait on Brendan. While eating lunch, Brendan overhears Patrick and Tony at the next table discuss plans to threaten Key Club owner Finney the following day into selling the club, as per Francis Cosmo’s orders. Before leaving to warn Finney, Brendan asks Kate to meet him for drinks after her shift. Learning that Finney is at his other club, The Precinct, Brendan meets Kate at a bar across the street and keeps an eye on The Precinct’s entrance. When he sees Finney leave, Brendan joins him, but the otherwise engaged club owner instructs him to meet him the next morning. Later, Finney informs Brendan that Cosmo has been pressuring him to sell Key Club to make way for his urban development plans. When Patrick and Tony arrive at the club and demand that Finney sign it over to Cosmo, Finney’s men appear with shotguns. As a warning to Cosmo, Finney breaks Tony’s arm and orders him and Patrick to leave for London on the next train. To reward Brendan for his tip-off, Finney gives him the key to Patrick’s car, a Jaguar. Reaching London, Tony and Patrick telephone Cosmo. Angry, Cosmo orders Bob to beat up Brendan for interfering with his plans. Later, Andrej, a member of The Krakow Jazz Ensemble, invites Brendan and Kate to a Polish social club, but later, as Brendan and Kate leave in his new Jaguar, Cosmo’s associate, Bob, signals Brendan to pull over. Bob and a henchman attack Brendan, and when Kate attempts to fight them off, they punch her, too. Taking a gun from the glove compartment, Brendan kills the henchman. Brendan and Kate flee to the Royal Station Hotel and hide in Andrej’s room. The following morning, Finney meets Cosmo and agrees to sell his property for a high price. Elsewhere, Kate confesses she knows Bob works for Cosmo, and they need to leave town. Driving Brendan’s car to her apartment to pack, Kate is surprised by Cosmo. He offers her two airplane tickets on the next flight out of London. Meanwhile, one of Cosmo’s associates plants a bomb in Brendan’s car to detonate at midnight. When Kate picks up Brendan, she tells him about the airline tickets, but Brendan earlier heard a radio report stating the airline had cancelled all its flights. Suspicious, he sends Kate to the Key Club to talk to Finney. At the club, Andrej and Christine ask to borrow Brendan’s car, and she hands them the keys. Kate and Brendan enter Finney’s office as he signs over the club to Cosmo. Outside, the Jaguar explodes, killing Andrej and Christine. Brendan aims his gun at Cosmo, but Finney calls him off, declaring that the American is not worth killing. Tearing up the contract, Finney orders Cosmo to leave Newcastle and stay away from Brendan and Kate.