Adding machine: The life history and, in its later scenes, the death history of Mr. Zero, a cog in the vast machine of modern business. Street scene: "Takes place entirely on the front stoop of a New York City brownstone and in the adjacent street in the early part of the 20th century. It studies the daily and complex lives of the people living in the building (and surrounding neighborhood) and their sad, often tragic interactions. The main characters are Anna Maurrant, dealing with issues of infidelity; Rose Maurrant, her daughter, who struggles with the demands of her job and boss and her attraction to a Jewish neighbor, Sam Kaplan; Frank Maurrant, the domineering and sometimes abusive husband and father of Anna and Rose; Sam, a caring and concerned neighbor in love with Rose; and many other neighbors and passersby. -- Dream girl: "Georgina Allerton, a young woman whose efforts to run a bookstore are undermined severely by her tendency to drift off into Walter Mitty-like flights of fancy on a regular basis."--