Sam Stone, a middle-aged businessman, tells his mistress, Carol, that he married his wife Barbara for her inheritance, believing her rich father would die any minute. Barbara’s father, however, ended up living and Sam eventually made his own fortune in the fashion industry. Despite his financial success, Sam feels entitled to Barbara’s family inheritance because he has suffered through years of marriage to a woman he despises. He regrets that his strategy to knock Barbara out with chloroform and throw her off a cliff is not more violent. With great excitement, and the contrived approval of Carol, he heads home to execute his plan. In his outlandishly decorated post-modern mansion, Sam is outraged to find that Barbara is not there. Further annoyed by the presence of Barbara’s toy poodle, Sam chases the dog outside and hurls the bottle of chloroform at it. Sam then receives a phone call informing him that his wife has been kidnapped and will be killed if he deviates from the kidnapper's instructions. Delighted at this unexpected turn of events, Sam proceeds to violate as many of the instructions as possible, alerting the police and media. Meanwhile, Ken and Sandy Kessler, the young couple who kidnapped Barbara, lock her in their basement, despite a struggle. Disparagingly mocking their duck-faced masks and the odor of their basement, Barbara contends that Sam worships her and will get her back by any means necessary. Later, Ken and Sandy see a news report about the kidnapping. When Sandy expresses regret, Ken reminds her that Sam made millions by stealing her spandex miniskirt invention. Ken tells her that they must be ruthless to get what they deserve. Meanwhile, Carol conspires with her dimwitted boyfriend, Earl, to blackmail Sam for the murder of his wife. She sends Earl with a camcorder to a deserted bridge by the Hollywood Sign where Sam has planned to dispose of Barbara's body. Back at the Stone residence, the police investigate, and Sam feigns grief. That evening, Earl records a loud sexual interlude between a man and a prostitute that he mistakes for Sam murdering Barbara. Earl returns to Carol's house, recounts the events of the assumed murder, and gives her the tape. However, Carol doesn't watch enough of it to verify its contents. At that moment, Sam shows up at Carol’s, and Earl hides in the bathroom. Sam gloats about the kidnapping, but Carol believes the kidnap story to be an alibi to cover Sam’s murder of Barbara. At the Kessler household, Barbara's escape attempt is thwarted, but the couple is caught without their masks and their anonymity is compromised. Back in the basement, Barbara discovers an exercise show on television and begins a work out regimen. Ken attempts to meet Sam to collect the ransom, but is surprised when Sam does not show up. When he calls Sam to reschedule, Sam is uncooperative and seems perturbed that the kidnappers have not followed through with their threats to kill Barbara. Carol anonymously mails Sam a copy of Earl's video, but, after viewing it, Sam assumes that it is from Carol, and calls to thank her for the pornography. Carol interprets the call as a threat on her life, and hides in Earl's trailer. She decides that for her own protection, Earl must make another copy of the tape for the police. When Sam misses a second ransom meeting, Ken calls him again. This time, Sam openly refuses to pay and Ken lowers their ransom. Later, Sam's hopes are raised when the police ask him to identify a body, but he has to hide his frustration when he discovers the corpse is not his wife. The police commissioner, Chief Benton, receives Earl’s tape and is shocked to see himself in the video. He interprets Carol's demand of Sam’s arrest as a form of blackmail and heads to the Stone residence. Attempting to incriminate Sam, Chief Benton plants a bottle of cyanide in Sam’s desk. However, he is interrupted by two of his own patrolmen, who have discovered Sam’s chloroform bottle and photographs of Sam with Carol, providing plenty of evidence to arrest him for the kidnapping. Meanwhile, in another phone conversation with Ken, Sam dares him to kill Barbara. Upon realizing that she has lost twenty pounds, Barbara excitedly tries on dresses designed by Sandy and learns that the Kesslers kidnapped her because of Sam’s exploits. When she is told that Sam has refused to pay the ransom, she redirects her rage at him. Acting on their new evidence, police place Sam under arrest, but he quickly makes bail. Ken returns home from work to find that Sandy has freed Barbara and panics, even though Sandy reassures him that Barbara is now on their side and has promised to make her a rising star in high fashion. A policeman then shows up at the Kessler home, but he is looking for the “Bedroom Killer,” a local serial killer on the loose. Meanwhile, the knife-wielding killer ducks into the Kessler's house to hide. When Barbara returns to the Kessler’s house, the Bedroom Killer is confronted by Ken, Sandy, and Barbara, and falls down the basement steps to his death. Barbara, armed with news headlines that report Sam’s kidnapping story is a hoax and feature a photograph of Sam and Carol in a lover’s embrace, decides to help the Kesslers take Sam down by revealing all of his assets. When Sam returns home, he receives another call from the Kesslers. This time, Sam, who now needs his wife back to clear his name, agrees to pay a reduced ransom. The Kesslers, however, now demand millions of dollars based on Barbara's assessment of Sam's net worth. Upon finding out about Sam’s release, Carol calls Chief Benton. The Chief begs her not to make the tape public and Carol becomes suspicious about its contents. She and Earl play the tape on the display televisions at the electronics shop where Ken works and come to the conclusion that Barbara was, in fact, kidnapped, while shoppers, including Chief Benton’s wife, look on. After failing to convince the police of the same fact, Sam decides to actually pay the ransom. He withdraws over $2 million from the bank, then reveals the meeting location in a phone conversation with Carol. Ken shows up at the rendezvous in a clown mask, takes the suitcase with the money, and is promptly confronted by the police. He threatens everyone at the scene with a walkie-talkie, saying that if disturbed, he will order his conspirators to kill Barbara. The police decide to let Ken leave, but Sam refuses to go along with their orders and takes the case back from Ken at gunpoint. Sam is forced by the police to return the case to Ken and back off, at which point Earl arrives to take the money. The police threaten Earl this time, and Ken is finally able to drive away with the money. Ken is followed by squad cars and, when cornered at the Santa Monica Pier, he appears to commit suicide by driving his car off the end of the pier into the ocean. Soon after, the police pull a body wearing a clown mask out of the water, and it turns out to be the Bedroom Killer. Assuming the money washed out to sea, Sam is still happy because he assumes that Barbara has finally been killed. Barbara then turns up at the pier, identifies the serial killer to the police as her kidnapper and insists that he acted alone. When the police are looking away, Barbara pushes Sam off the pier in retaliation for his offenses. Ken surfaces at a nearby beach with the money. Barbara soon meets up with the Kesslers and the three celebrate their perfectly executed plan.