Plot
Hector Poole, a sensitive, insecure bank clerk, gains telepathic powers after tossing a coin that miraculously stands on its edge. He discovers that he is able to "hear" other people's thoughts, and is surprised to hear the things people are thinking around him.
He first "hears" his boss thinking about a weekend affair he is planning with his mistress. Then a businessman, Mr. Sykes, thinks about taking out a large loan to pay for a run at the horse track to win back money he has embezzled from his company. Hector informs his boss, Mr. Bagby, and thwarts the businessman's plans. Hector also "hears" Miss Turner, a co-worker, admiring Hector from afar and wishing he would be more assertive. Hector "hears" her thoughts and decides to take her into his confidence by revealing his psychic abilities to her.
Shortly afterwards, Hector uncovers an apparent plot by an old, trusted employee, Mr. Smithers, to steal cash from the bank, and alerts Mr. Bagby. The plot is eventually disproved; the veteran bank employee admits he has fantasized about stealing money from the bank for years but would never go through with such a plan because he's too much of a coward. Mr. Bagby fires Hector, but reinstates him when he discovers that Mr. Sykes has been arrested for gambling with company money. With the encouragement of Miss Turner, Hector uses his knowledge of Mr. Bagby's adultery to blackmail his boss into promoting him to accounts manager at the bank and giving Mr. Smithers a long-overdue vacation.
After work, as Poole returns home with Miss Turner, he inadvertently knocks down the standing coin. His mind-reading ability is gone, but he is still a changed man, for the better.
Read more about this topic: A Penny For Your Thoughts
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“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
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The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
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To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
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