All there is to The Count associated with Alphonse and Ruth heading off (8)
I believe the answer is:
totality
'all' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'alphonse and ruth heading off' is the wordplay.
'alphonse' becomes 'total' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ruth' becomes 'pity' (synonyms).
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'pity' with its initial letter taken off is 'ity'.
'total'+'ity'='TOTALITY'
'there is to the count associated with' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for totality that I've seen before include "The complete number or amount" , "The whole of something" , "Completeness" , "Whole amount" , "Sum" .)