In 1969, FBI agent Carl Hanratty traveled to Marseille, France, and picked up Frank Abagnale Jr., a prisoner who became ill as a result of the conditions in the prison.
Frank Abagnale Jr., his father Frank Abagnale Sr., and his French mother Paula resided in New Rochelle, New York, six years ago. He observed his father's many con tricks when he was younger. The family had to relocate to a modest apartment due to Frank Sr.'s financial issues with the IRS.
On his son's 16th birthday, Frank Abagnale Jr.'s father created a new bank account in his son's name and gave him a 50-page checkbook, declaring that he was now a member of the bank's exclusive small club. On his first day at a new school, he got bullied by the students. So, he started pretending to be the teacher when he entered. He also tricked the other staff into thinking he was a new employee who had just been posted there at the school. After a week, the school's headmaster calls Frank's parents to complain, claiming that he even attended a meeting with students and parents and had organized a class field trip. His father doesn’t get mad but enjoys his mistakes.
Frank learns that his mother is having an affair with Jack Barnes, a friend of his father's from the New Rochelle Rotary Club. Frank flees after his parents are divorced. He resorts to confidence tricks to survive, and as his con becomes more daring. He gets admired for being a pilot. He pretends to be a high school student who writes essays about pilots and first encounters Mr. Morgan, an experienced pilot. There, he collects all the information he wants. Then he forges the airline's payroll checks while posing as Frank Taylor, a Pan Am pilot. He even gets his pair of uniforms and makes his stay at the hotel. His fake checks and forgeries finally amount to millions of dollars. To get into Miami, he poses as a deadhead. He frequently mentions in his letters to his father that he has recently graduated from training to become a copilot.
Agent Carl Hanratty of the FBI begins looking for Frank as soon as he becomes aware of the atrocities. Carl finds that he has opened checking accounts in various banks and changed the MICR ink routing numbers at the bottom of those checks. The bank doesn't even know the check has bounced for two weeks when the checks re-route to other cities. His father knows he is traveling exotically and doesn’t stop but encourages him along the way. Carl discovers him at a motel, but Frank dupes Carl into thinking he's Barry Allen from the Secret Service. Carl flees before realizing he's been deceived.
When he sees Mr. Morgan again, he learns that the word is circulating about him in the papers, referring to him as Skyman, the James Bond of the skies. Frank apologizes to Carl over the phone on Christmas Eve for what he did in Los Angeles. Frank even mentions that he is now in Room 3113 of the Stuyvesant Arms and heading to Las Vegas the following morning.
Carl refuses to believe him this time. When Carl finds out that Frank didn’t call to apologize and that he has no one to talk to now, Frank turns nervous and hangs up. Carl finds that Frank uses the comic character name, Barry Allen. Carl then meets Frank’s mom to inquire about her missing son's case. When Carl discovers that Frank is the person they have been looking for, he includes the information that Frank has forged checks worth 1.3 million dollars thus far.
Frank starts acting like a doctor. He falls in love with Brenda, an innocent young hospital nurse, while he is Dr. Frank Conners. Meanwhile, in search of Frank Jr., Carl meets Frank Sr. and notes the address from the letter he recently received from Frank Jr. To marry Brenda, he also begs for assistance in setting up to take the Louisiana State Bar exam, which Frank passes to convince her lawyer father.
Frank then meets his father and invites him to his wedding. Additionally, he claims that whatever the bank stole from them was money he earned. Frank Sr. says that his ex-wife Paula got married to his friend Jack Barnes. He also mentions that the FBI is looking for him. After hearing what his father says, Frank Jr. declares that he will stop, but his father urges him to continue and claims he can't stop. Next year, Frank pings Carl on Christmas Eve. Frank lets him know that he will be leaving and getting married. Carl claims that he will still capture him for forging $4 million. When Carl follows him to his and Brenda's engagement party, Frank flees via a bedroom window, instructing Brenda to meet him at Miami International Airport two days later.
Frank notices Brenda at the airport, along with some unmarked security personnel. He sees that she has abandoned him and starts his car. Frank poses as a pilot once more and holds a fictitious stewardess recruitment campaign at a nearby college. He hides from Carl and the other agents at the airport, surrounded by eight female stewardesses, and boards a flight to Madrid, Spain.
In 1967, Carl locates Frank in the French village of Montrichard, where his mother was born, and successfully conspires to get him jailed.
Carl returns Frank to the present day and boards a plane bound for the United States. Carl alerts him that his father has passed away as they get closer. Grief-stricken, Frank flees the aircraft and arrives at his mother's house, who has since had a daughter with Barnes. Frank assumes the identity of Carl and is sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison. On occasion, Carl will see Frank. During one visit, he shows a fraud check from a case he is working on.
Frank immediately recognizes that the bank teller was involved in the fraud. Carl persuades the FBI to let him spend the remaining portion of his sentence working for the Financial Crimes Unit after witnessing his impressive performance. Frank nods in agreement but quickly gets bored with the tiresome office work.
One weekend, Carl catches Frank when he is about to pull another impersonation of a pilot. Carl is ready to let Frank get on with the con since he assures him that no one is pursuing him and that it's his decision. Carl challenges Frank when he gets back to work about whether or not he cheated on the Louisiana State Bar Exam. Frank replies that he studied for it and passed, which makes Carl grin. They talk about another fraud case.
Frank, who has three sons with his wife and has lived in the Midwest for 26 years, is still friends with Carl, and he has made a successful life as one of the top authorities on forgery and bank fraud in the world. It's a biographical film.
