In Soviet Russia in 1927, a former member of nobility, Ippolit Vorobyaninov, works as a desk clerk, until his mother-in-law reveals on her deathbed that her family jewelry had been hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family?s dining room set. Those chairs, along with all other personal property, had been expropriated by the government after the Russian Revolution. He becomes a treasure hunter, and after the smooth operator and con-man Ostap Bender forces Vorobyaninov to partner with him, they set off to track down the chairs.