Utilizing the simple yet most imaginative theatrical techniques, and taking all of America as its target, the play offers scathing comments on the rigid socio-economic stratification of modern society. The catalyst is one Horace Elgin, a Candide-like hero who begins as an apprentice hole-maker but whose gift for writing poetry gives him the means to aspire to higher education and upward mobility on all fronts (including romance). Inevitably Horace overreaches himself, and falls victim to the relentless status quo, but not before racial and religious prejudice, class snobbery and even short-sighted literary censorship have come in for their share of biting, revealing and very funny examination.