Cincinnati, 1949. In a small office crammed with stacks of catalogs sits Joseph McVicker. He's just over twenty and has recently taken the helm of Kutol, the business his father had run until a few days before. Seated behind an old desk, he reviews figures that don't add up: sales are plummeting. The company manufactures a special paste for cleaning wallpaper, but fewer and fewer homes have coal heating, which means the walls aren't getting as dirty as they used to.