Department head Sack meets an unfortunate end and Dr. Geist is promoted. There are couplings, accidents, a suicide attempt, and more. But the heart of the novel lies in the details, the everyday scenes, the conversations, the office lives. The office is like most any large office, trivial frictions escalating into all-out conflict, friendship and enmity always rubbing against each other in the too close quarters, ridiculous demands, pointless tasks, and bureaucracy dominating the workday. The characters try to find meaning in their lives, often by going through these pointless motions.
Cynicism easily bubbles to the surface.
Brecher sashays through the city and the office comfortably enough much of the time, but it does finally get to him. But Brecher's fiasco is ultimately his own. Berlin in the background, however, gives him a second layer of material, and this too he uses to the fullest. Berlin is as lively a town as one can imagine, with equal measures of provincialism and urbanity, overwhelmed small minded folk rubbing shoulders with citizens of the world, soulless, dehumanizing conglomerates like Uvag still peopled by very human figures, yet slowly destroying them. The writing is fast-paced, dense, and clever, dripping with satire.