Summary

Mr. Martin, a small, officious little man who works for F & S (in a filing department), is out on the streets of New York, putting into motion his plan to kill Ulgine Barrows, a woman who works in his office. This is rather surprising, since Mr. Martin is a thoroughly unremarkable man who is perfectly content to work as an unremarkable, yet remarkably efficient employee at F&S. Furthermore, he does not smoke and has never drunk anything stronger than a glass of milk, save the one time when he drank a ginger ale.

As Mr. Martin thinks about the reasons for wanting to get rid of Ulgine Barrows, the story moves back in time to her arrival in the office. Ulgine Barrows is introduced as the new special adviser to the president of the firm, Mr. Fitweiler, after Mr. Fitweiler...