Harry Nathan falls hard for Betty Braddock but his inability to make simple decisions soon drives them apart. The next day, when he loses his job, Harry turns for advice to his ex-colleague, Carly Brown and his best friend, Max Stanford. Carly wants to rescue Harry; Max wants to borrow his car for a hot date.

Later that night, when all seems lost, Harry elects to kill himself . . . but can’t decide how. Enter Wilma Deakins, the devil's emissary. Her job is to persuade Harry to sell his soul -- which she does by promising him he can wish to get back with Betty -- then making sure he does not make all of his wishes so he defaults on his contract.

Wilma gets a bonus if she succeeds or a fate worse than death if she doesn’t (She’s already knitting four billion sweaters in case Hell ever does freeze over). So the first thing Harry discovers is that the fine print in the contract states that everything he wishes for, his best friend, Max, gets twice as much. Plus, Max has to pre-approve all of Harry’s wishes. When Harry makes his first wish-to get back with Betty-Wilma explains that this is impossible because Max cannot get back with two Bettys. Max won’t pre-approve any of Harry’s wishes and Harry cannot ethically make any of Max’s sleazy wishes.They reach an impasse and Max storms off in a snit.

When Harry realizes he’s not going to make all his wishes in time, he contacts Carly to help him find a loophole in the contract. They have 24 hours to pull it off or Harry's going down (literally).