Charles Lang works at a menial job at a factory and lives with his blind sister Rita in an apartment in Chicago during the 1934 Century of Progress world's fair.

The lawyers try to force Lang into giving them his plans, but he says he no longer has them; the audience finds out from a scene in the newspaper reporter’s office that he and Rita have been killed.

The play ends with Bernie, a young friend of the family who has previously shown mechanical aptitude, receiving the plans for the Water Engine in the mail.

[5] The cast included Dwight Schultz as Charles Lang, David Sabin as Morton Gross, and Bill Moor as Lawrence Oberman.

Charles Durning, Treat Williams, Andrea Marcovicci, Peter Michael Goetz, Rebecca Pidgeon, Felicity Huffman, Ricky Jay, and Joanna Miles also were in the cast.