In Los Angeles, Chinese Ambassador Han, with Chief Inspector Lee as his bodyguard, addresses the importance of fighting the Triads at the World Criminal Court, announcing that he may know the whereabouts of Shy Shen, a semi-mythical individual of great importance to the Chinese mob. Before announcing, an assassin shoots Han, disrupting the conference. Lee pursues the shooter and corners him, discovering that the assassin is his childhood Japanese foster brother Kenji. When Lee hesitates to shoot Kenji, he makes his escape when Detective James Carter (having learned about the shooting over the police radio) arrives and tries to intervene.
Lee learns that Han will make a full recovery in the hospital, as the bullet hit only his shoulder. Han's daughter, Soo-Yung, now grown up, arrives and makes Lee and Carter promise to capture the one behind the shooting. On Soo-Yung's insistence, Lee and Carter then go to the Kung Fu studio where Soo-Yung teaches to find an envelope entrusted to her by Han. They meet the old master, who informs the duo that the Triads took Soo-Yung's belongings, Lee and Carter arrive in the hospital just in time to intercept a gang of French speaking assassins who attempted to kill Soo-Yung and Han. Lee and Carter defeat the assassins and interrogate one of them with the help of a nun, Sister Agnes, who can speak French. For her protection, they take Soo-Yung to the French Embassy and leave her under the care of Reynard, the French ambassador and the chairman of the World Criminal Court. When a car bomb nearly kills Reynard and Soo-Yung, the duo decides to go to Paris to investigate.
In Paris, after undergoing a painful cavity search from Parisian commissioner Revi, Lee and Carter meet George, a taxi driver, who is prejudiced against Americans. After Carter forces George to help, he drives them to a Triad hideout. Once there, Lee is tricked by a mob assassin named Jasmine, who claims to have information about Shy Shen, and she almost kills him, but Carter intervenes. Lee and Carter attempt to escape the Triads, having convinced a scared George that they need his help, but are ultimately captured by Kenji's men. Kenji offers to let them live if the two leave Paris immediately, but Lee refuses and, in a short struggle, he and Carter escape their captivity. The duo recuperate at a hotel, where Lee reveals his relations with Kenji to Carter, but decides that his help is not needed. Carter leaves the hotel in disappointment, but recomposes himself when spots and follows a woman he met at the Triad hideout, learning that she is a stage performer named Geneviève. Meanwhile, Reynard meets Lee in his hotel room and reveals that Shy Shen is not a person, but a list of the Triad leaders and that Geneviève is Han's informant who has access to the list.
After locating Geneviève and saving her from an assassination attempt, the two flee to their hotel room where Carter seduces Geneviève. They are attacked by Jasmine and are rescued by George, who decides to help them and has developed a great appreciation for Americans. Lee and Carter then learn that Geneviève is the list. The names of the thirteen Triad leaders have been tattooed on the back of her head and, as per tradition, Geneviève explains that she will be beheaded and buried if the Triads capture her. When Lee and Carter bring Geneviève to Reynard, they find out that he has been working with the Triads all along. Kenji calls and informs Lee that he has captured Soo-Yung and that he would like to exchange her for Geneviève.