After beauty school teacher Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) becomes a local hero by rescuing lab animals from a fire in her workplace building, she's offered a job by Ira Grushinsky (Ian McNeice), an emissary from the Eastern European nation of Slovetzia. Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton), the country's dictator, wants to improve his image by hiring an American tutor for his children. Mistaken for a real teacher, Joy arrives in Slovetzia and soon bumps heads with Boris while brightening up palace life.