Great Depression. Not jobs to be found. Gertrude Blanch, a trained mathematician can only find work in a hat store when she is discovered by a representative of the Worlds Projects Administration and is given the opportunity to run the worlds largest computing office, 450 jobless clerks adding and subtracting at long tables. Suspecting that this will be her only chance for a professional career, she takes the job, even though she knows that the WPA is disparaged by scientists and is considered a hotbed of Communist organization. She and her assistant, Ida, trip through several adventures (including work for the Manhattan Project) until the spotlight of government investigation suggests that Dr. Blanch might not be loyal.
—D.A.Grier