A socially-awkward college student, who lives vicariously through his hero fantasies, takes his roommates on a trip around the world only to end up held hostage by a crazy Italian man, hell-bent on his daughter marrying an American.

With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky weatherman" tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles.