"Chop Chop" Frankie Carbone has made a career out of stealing cars for the mob in Chicago. An attempted assassination by a mob boss goes badly and Frankie retaliates, only to wind up in the hands of the Feds.
Frankie agrees to testify against the mobsters and his life is suddenly worthless - unless he submits to going into federal protection.
The FBI gives him a new name - Howard Akers - and relocates him to a sleepy middle-class suburb in Little Rock, AR.
Howard catches the attention of his lovely neighbor, Leigh, a bored fund-raiser for a non-profit zoo whose husband, Dennis, is having an affair - and she knows it, but she doesn't know it's with her hot-blooded sister, Bootsie.
Leigh becomes friends with the enigmatic Howard, but Dennis and Bootsie see an opportunity to earn the million-dollar bounty the mob has put on his head by turning him in to the mob.