Recently dumped by girlfriend Lizzie - who is now his boss - office worker Sam Pinkett is the sole witness to a car crash on a lonely country road. Sam picks up an abandoned phone and hears an Oriental voice say, If you are not here by 5 o'clock we will kill your wife. Phil Bourne, the office mailroom boy, who still lives with his mum and craves excitement, encourages Phil to save the woman, keeping their involvement secret from the police, Lizzie and Sam's office rival Noel. The caller addresses Sam as Mr Stevens so the two men decide to visit Stevens at the local hospital, where Sam is almost operated on by accident and the man Sam believes to be Stevens is somebody else entirely. The pair thus decide to face the kidnappers alone.