The stage is set for the telling of a story... A Dublin doctor, ruined by alcohol and card-playing, is sent to find a priest to baptise his newborn son. In a seedy lounge bar, he comes across a strange party of men accompanied by a handsome, golden-haired priest who introduces himself as God. Later the same day, in another bar, he meets a vulgar little 'contact man', carrying a briefcase and wearing rings of solid gold, who announces that he is Death. God allows the gambler three requests, two of which enable him to live a prosperous, if somewhat empty, life, and the third of which he can use to cheat Death.