"It's Depression-era New York, and Mr. Nut, an oblivious American everyman, wants to strike it rich, even if at the moment he's unemployed, with no job prospects in sight. Over the course of a single night, in a narrative that unfolds hour by hour, he meets a cast of strange characters--disgruntled workers at a Communist cafeteria, lecherous old men, sexually exploited women, pesky authors--who eventually convince him to cast off his bourgeois aspirations...