When a former aristocrat who is now a Russian clerk under the new Soviet regime learns that his dying mother-in-law sewed a fortune of family jewels into one of twelve dining room chairs, he sets off across Russia to find it--with an opportunist, a priest and his former servant all in pursuit.

A has-been movie director (Mel Brooks) intends to make a comeback by making a silent movie, and in the process, save his film studio from a takeover by a New York-based conglomerate. The gags are written out in the form of intertitles.

The new sheriff and his sidekick, retired gunfighter Waco Kid, protect the town of Rock Ridge from the men who want to run the railroad through the town.