Harry Price and his inept crew of amateur criminals kidnap Cesare Celli, an exiled American gangster living in Italy and hold him for ransom.  When it turns out that none of Celli's friends will bail him out, he conceives the idea of a $5 million platinum robbery both as a way of repaying Price and his gang for their kidnaping effort and to retaliate against a world that has passed him by.  Celli puts the novice criminals through rigorous physical training and brings in the renowned Professor Samuels to mastermind the heist.

The gang encounters numerous difficulties in raising capital for the robbery, but finally they are ready to put their plan into action.  The special railway car carrying the platinum will be blocked by a surplus tank, and the loot will be loaded onto a hijacked bomber for transport to a fence in Morocco.  Despite consistent bumbling and threats by Harry and his girl friend Juliana to betray Celli and abscond with the platinum, the robbery is successful and the plane makes its getaway.

All the gang's efforts come to naught, however, when the plane's bomb doors are accidentally opened and the platinum descends into the waiting arms of the police.