Albert is a cheerful, unscrupulous "tally-man", a door-to-door salesman who cons housewives into buying things they don't need on the installment plan. He's happy - until he begins to fall in love.

Ian Hendry plays a smooth talking door-to-door salesman whose sales techniques involves seducing his female customers in order to persuade them to buy on credit. Unfaithful to his pregnant girlfriend, unrepentant Albert is also cheating his boss out of the profits. The film paints a vivid picture of the early 60s credit boom Britain, when the masses were enjoying a newfound spending power and learning to live beyond their means, thanks to the miracle of hire purchase.