To save the family business, two ne’er-do-well traveling salesmen hit the road with disastrously funny consequences.

Mild-mannered mystery writer D. H. Mercer has become so immersed in his material that his creation, hard-boiled private eye Biff Deegan, constantly appears to him as a hallucination. Intent on getting rid of Biff, and replacing him with a more civilized detective, Mercer soon finds himself in a genuine mystery involving art fraud, murder, and a beautiful lady in peril.

The death of a factory owner signals a change for all of the staff, none more so than a sheet metal worker called Watson, who is denied a promised promotion and finds his position as the unofficial leader of the sheet metal workers challenged by Gregg, a new apprentice who joins the factory and isn't willing to follow the accepted order.