Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin), a widowed brain surgeon renowned for inventing a method of 'cranial screw-top' brain surgery, saves the life of Dolores Benedict (Kathleen Turner), a gold-digging femme fatale who is accidentally run over by Hfuhruhurr when fleeing the scene of her latest husband's fatal coronary (which her malicious mind-games and scheming caused). As she recovers, Hfuhruhurr falls in love with her and they marry. However, trouble seems to begin right after he carries her over the threshold; Dolores torments Michael by pretending to be too ill to consummate the marriage, driving him into a frenzy of frustration. On a honeymoon/business trip to a medical conference in Vienna, a city living in fear of the serial "Elevator Killer", Hfuhruhurr meets mad scientist Dr. Alf