Richard Quine directs this comic adaptation of the novel by Anthony Hope which sees Peter Sellers starring in multiple roles. When the mad old King of Ruritania (Sellers) is killed in a freak hot-air balloon incident, two proud Ruritanian suitors who don't want the king's son (Sellers) to take the throne travel to England in search of Syd (Sellers), a London cabbie who has an un-nerving likeness to the late king. Once in Ruritania, Syd has to outwit the Machiavellian plans of the evil Prince Michael (Jeremy Kemp) while he finds himself falling in love with the late king's fiancée.