It’s Christmas Eve in New York. Men in hooded monks’ robes and plastic masks of the face of Jesus Christ have just pulled off a spectacular robbery of the oldest church in town, getting away with tens of millions of dollars in jewelry and cash and also killing fifteen of the congregation. 

Stumbling onto the scene is Lieutenant Amos Freeman, on his way home to Brooklyn after buying presents for the wife he no longer loves, and after stopping by his favorite haunt, Big Dot’s Jungle Bar, for a few drinks (or as Big Dot often says, “a few too many”). 

Freeman snaps into professional mode, quickly assuming command of a chaotic situation, and in the process, making a big impression on a furious Mayor Frederick Lindstadt, who had been mocked and humiliated by the robbers for being not only short and bald, but helpless as well.

 
When the TV crews bear down and police brass arrive to take charge, Amos Freeman, not a big fan of police department politics, melts into the background.