When her father dies, Celia Forrest inherits more than she expects. Among the items handed down is a crummy debt collection agency, which is on its last legs. Faced with a choice of letting it close or running it herself, Celia opts for the latter, a woman bravely entering a man's world, as rival tallyman Andy Barras happily informs her.

He's not the only one who thinks Celia may be biting off more than she can chew: her teenage daughter, Wendy, and her mum both frown upon the move. Still, Celia has plenty of spirit. With young Crystal as her secretary and a dyslexic former debtor named Carmichael - with whom she fails to see eye to eye - as her leg man, she intends to succeed.