Mario Beretti is a young Italian-American barber who runs a barber shop in New York City located near a construction site that boasts few customers. His life reaches a turning point when he is notified of the death of his aunt in
Lavenham, England, who named him her sole heir. Mario rushes to England and learns that his inheritance consists of not much; only thirteen antique chairs that have a certain value. He sells them to cover his transportation costs, but soon learns from his Aunt Laura's last message that inside one of the chairs is a fortune in jewels. He tries to buy back the chairs, but is unsuccessful. With the help of lovely American antiques dealer Pat, who works in the antiques shop in front of Aunt Laura's house, where he sold the chairs, he launches a bizarre quest to track down the chairs that takes the duo from London to Paris, then to Rome. Along the way they meet a bunch of equally bizarre characters, including Albert, the driver of a furniture-moving van; a prostitute named Judy; Maurice, the leader of a traveling theater company that stages a poor version of
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; and Italian entrepreneur Carlo Di Seta and his vivacious daughter Stefanella. The bizarre chase ends in Rome, where the chair containing the jewels finds its way into a truck and is collected by nuns who auction it off for charity. With nothing left to do as a result of the failure of his quest, Mario travels back to New York City by ship. Pat sees him off and waves goodbye to him. The film ends with Mario returning to New York City and his barber shop. His friends at the other (and more lavish) shop join him, as do two construction workers and his last customer, Randomhouse. It is there that Mario makes a strange discovery: shortly before his departure for Europe, he invented a way to make hair regrow miraculously. He laughs ecstatically, even maniacally, over his discovery. ==Cast==