Hudsucker Industries is flourishing. Profits are stupendous and stock is at an all-time high. So when their founder Waring Hudsucker leaps to his death from the 44th floor his board of directors is thrown into panic. Hudsucker has not left a will and his majority shareholding in the company must therefore soon be offered for sale to the public. But scheming Vice President Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) has a plan. He'll install a complete imbecile as Chairman and devalue the stock to a level where the rest of the board can acquire controlling interests for themselves. Enter inexperienced college leaver Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) a modest mail-room worker who suddenly finds himself elevated to Company Chairman. Not surprisingly such a tale of rags-to-riches soon attracts considerable interest from the press in the form of gorgeous star reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh). As stock values plummet everything appears to be going according to plan - until Norville actually does the unimaginable and invents a brilliant company-saving idea... something that captures the imagination of an entire nation.