Anchor plot: Four angels — Charlie (Charles Durning), Earl (Scatman Crothers), Gonzales (Castulo Guerra), and Ruth (Beatrice Straight) — have been in charge of Heaven for the last twenty-five years. They are playing a golf match in Heaven when their game is interrupted by God (voiced by Gene Hackman), who has returned to the office and does not like what he sees down on Earth. God wants to order up another flood and start all over again (despite his promise in the rainbow that he never would again), but the four angels persuade him to reconsider, reasoning that, if a typical Earth man can reform, it would prove that all mankind is capable of it.
God agrees to the scheme, and the typical Earth man selected by the angels is Zack Melon (John Travolta), a failed inventor who, threatened by loan sharks, decides to hold up a bank. Zack points his gun at bank teller Debbie Wylder (Olivia Newton-John), who ostensibly gives him all the money. However, when Zack peers into the sack after the robbery, he sees that Debbie has substituted bank deposit slips for the cash and has kept the money for herself. Zack tracks her down to reclaim his stolen money. While dodging the loan sharks and the evil interventions of the Devil (Oliver Reed), the two come to develop a romantic relationship which is put to the test when they are threatened by a masked thug.

Plot A: Frustrated TV producer Chris is a self-opinionated wannabe screenwriter (with a particular dislike of British films featuring quirky secondary characters and plastic gangsters) who is forced to leave his unreliable flatmate Bob in charge of showing a series of estate agents around the house he is trying to sell.  Worried by Bob's habit of spending all day "working" in the basement playing loud music, Chris asks his friend to listen out for the door bell and show anyone who comes calling inside.  Bob promises to do exactly that and for once, not to let him down.
Over the course of the day, whilst Chris struggles to cope with a loathsome colleague – back at the house it is soon clear that Bob is taking his promise to Chris rather too literally.  Bob has indeed, allowed anyone inside, including a couple of archetypal movie-style gangsters – an incompetent young Brit played by Danny Dyer and an incontinent American.
That evening, Chris is surprised to return home and find his flatmate, four estate agents, two Jehovah's Witnesses and a terrified children's entertainer being held hostage by a couple of characters straight out of a British gangster film.

Plot B: 1940 The Great Depression is over and World War II had just begun. King of the con men Fargo Gondorff is released from prison and reassembles his cronies for another con, out to avenge the murder of his lifelong pal and fellow con artist Kid Colors who was kidnapped, beaten, and then shot.
Gondorff's young protege Jake Hooker attempts to pull a scam on wealthy "Countess Veronique," who instead pulls one on him and turns out to be a grifter herself named Veronica.
Coming up with a boxing con, Gondorff's goal is to sting both Lonnegan, the notorious banker and gangster who wants revenge from a previous con, and Gus Macalinski, a wealthy local racketeer. One or both of them is behind Kid Colors' death.
Hooker pretends to be a boxer who is about to throw a big fight. Macalinski is not only hoodwinked into losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he is also talked into changing his original wager by Lonnegan. While one gangster takes care of the other, Gondorff and Hooker head for the train station with a bag full of money, tickets out of town and a final twist from Veronica.