Joey works at a printing shop operating ‘the Machine,’ an automated screen printer that requires an alert and capable handler. His employer, Mr. Grossman, starts him out at the lowest speed, but Joey is quickly able to get the hang of it and move quickly onto the highest speed. This position earns him a kind of respect in his workplace that he cannot find at home; his father is dead, and his mother is a soft woman prone to drinking too much and invading his personal space. Peggy, the girl that Joey is seeing, is enamoured with the ‘Silver Aces,’ a group of gangsters that have been broken up because they were all enlisted in the army. His mother, meanwhile, wishes that he had become a priest – but Joey thinks of priests as the receptacle of petty, womanly sorrows, considering himself above it. After some reflection, and a meaningless argument with Peggy, Joey realises that he is in love with the Machine. He dreams of it at night, kissing the machine until he is discovered by Mr. Grossman and accused of trying to steal it. At work the next day, nothing seems to go well. The ink is mixed too thin, the screens won’t work, and after some time the Machine slows to a stop. Joey believes that he is personally responsible for ‘breaking’ the machine – even when the technician takes the Machine apart and identifies the problem, he is convinced that his shameful love for the Machine corrupted its efficiency. That very same day, he quits his job, lying to Mr. Grossman and saying that he has been enlisted by the army. His mother, who has been complaining that he spends too much time working and very little time with her, tries to enter his room and ask him what’s wrong. Joey, who has been firm in his lack of faith thus far, gives in and thanks God for the wall that separates him from his mother.