King Kong and Baldy, the "Aces," part ways in 1986 after a mission in Thailand to kidnap a woman on her way to marry her boyfriend (a rich man claiming to be her husband enlisted the two's services) goes sour. Three years later, figures from the famous Terracotta Army and a Qing Dynasty bronze sword called the "Chinese Excalibur" is stolen while on the way to an exhibition in Hong Kong. Based on pictures that appear in the media, the two men are accused of having carried out the heist. By this time, King Kong is running an investment company that has long since been in the red, and Baldy - who sent his wife and son to Canada - is hiding in a Sai Kung houseboat from creditors who lent him money to invest in the stock market.
When a muscular MSS operative named the Chinese Rambo separately visits Baldy and King Kong (with indirect approval from the Hong Kong Police Force command, who have long since disowned them), both men decide to find those who framed them and clear their names.
They discover that a brother-sister tandem calling themselves the "New Aces" took the pictures during the heist and wore face masks of the two men's likenesses while getting away with the Chinese Excalibur too. They interrogate the two inside Baldy's houseboat, but as the siblings try to escape, they plunge into the water and get back to the house - a Chinese ship has towed the houseboat. All four of them are sent to Beijing and imprisoned to answer for the crime. They are forced to undergo a staged execution until the Chinese Rambo offers them a chance to get out of prison in exchange for helping the Chinese government recover the figures. The four Aces agree to help and start training in martial arts to recover the figures (since Beijing specifically ordered that the figures must not be damaged by any means) from the White Gloves syndicate. However, the Chinese Rambo calls off the training, explaining that the Chinese government will try to get the figures back through diplomatic means.
Despite the turn of events, the four Aces band together and proceed with the mission. A furious battle inside the White Gloves' hideout, which even involves use of the Chinese Excalibur, results in the quartet recovering the figures. King Kong, Baldy, and the New Aces join the Hong Kong police in sending off the Chinese Rambo, who is safeguarding the shipment back to China.