Howard Halliday edits and writes semipornographic stories, creates narratives to suit people's writing proclivities, knocks off snappy captions for every type of photograph and illustration, and generally maintains morale in the office. He thinks of the office as an "arcade of dreams" and sees his job as "turning out fairy tales for the modern reader."

Among Halliday's coworkers is Hattie Flyer who has begun to describe everything in intriguing headlines ("I Love The Coffee Cart Boy. How Can I Let Him Know?") and whose specialty is seizing on some deep yearning in a reader's heart and manipulating it. Her pieces rely on a basic formula that includes an initial titillation, a rebuff, rekindled hope, an inhibiting factor, and a final positive resolution. Kotzwinkle sees her, and the others, as slightly debased versions of the artist who is caught in commercial circumstances but still believes in the value of...