When police captain Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is badly wounded while investigating a series of robberies by someone calling themselves The Alphabet Bandit, Detroit police detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) returns once more to Beverly Hills to find out who is responsible. Reteaming with Det. William 'Billy' Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Det. Sgt. John Taggart (John Ashton), the trio are soon hot on the trail of businessman Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow) and his partner Karla Fry (Bridget Nielsen). Getting in the way of their hunt is Chief Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield), who believes they are going in the wrong direction despite all the evidence.