Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) is a successful newspaper cartoonist enjoying the comforts of a well-to-do and happy bachelorhood in his urban New York City townhouse, including his loyal and attentive valet, Charles Firbank (Terry-Thomas). Stanley's comic strip, ''Bash Brannigan'', is a secret-agent thriller characterized by a high level of realism (arts): No matter how outrageous the plot, Stanley will not allow Brannigan to do anything physically impossible or use gadgets that don't exist. He hires actors and sets up elaborate enactments of storylines, playing Brannigan himself, while Charles takes photographs that Stanley will use as visual references when drawing each strip.