Charismatic British aristocrat and part-time shady art dealer Charlie Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) suffers from a constant lack of funds to support his lush lifestyle, so when Alistair Maitland (Ewan McGregor), a college friend and officer in MI5, asks him to find a stolen Goya painting, he accepts. But Charlie's not the only one with designs on the painting; an American heiress and a revolutionary want it too, for the artwork is rumored to contain the code to a bank account filled with Nazi gold.