The year is 1957. The location is Hong Kong. Tommy Malloy is excited over the huge break his career has been given - starring in a musical-comedy movie film called Hong Kong Harry. While filming it, Malloy is asked by the CIA to do a simple mission to recruit local smugglers to bring in bootleg movies into China as a test for future use. This will turn out to be a huge mess as a shipment of arms from the British to Malalya goes missing.