The President is unreachable when the Vice President learns that terrorists have hidden a nuclear bomb in Manhattan. An official search could cause a deadly panic so he remembers his father's advice: "There's nothing smarter than a smart cop!" He sends the best cop he knows - reckless, hard-drinking ex-cop Riley, who is clueless but the beautiful Secret Service agent sent along as his bodyguard and undercover wife develops a search scheme both brilliant and dangerous.