A small South American republic has decided to capitalize on its national symbol: a prized gold statue of a dancing Aztec priest. The president asks a sculptor to make sixteen copies of it for sale abroad. The sculptor replaces the original with one of his fakes, and ships the real one to New York for an under-the-table sale to a museum.

The statues travel to America spread out among five crates, labelled to ensure that delivery goes as planned. But the plan doesn't work . . .