After returning home from White Castle (restaurant), Harold Lee and Kumar Patel decide to travel to Amsterdam, Netherlands so Harold can surprise his neighbor and newfound girlfriend Maria. At the airport, Kumar argues with a Transportation Security Administration agent for searching him “because of the color of his skin” despite the agent being black. The duo encounter Kumar's ex-girlfriend Vanessa Fanning, who is engaged to Colton Graham, a college friend of Harold's whose family has political connections. The plane passengers mistake Kumar's bong for a bomb and the duo are apprehended by sky marshals. Ron Fox, a neurotic and extremely racist Deputy United States Secretary of Homeland Security, believes the duo are agents of a joint Al-Qaeda and North Korean conspiracy and send them to Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. The duo escape and board a Cuban refugee boat to Miami, Florida where they begin their trek to Texas, hoping Colton can clear their names.