...Europe about o blow up and all I can get out of my foreign staff is a daily guessing game.I want some facts, Mr.Bradley!...Any kind of facts.There must be something going on in Europe beside a nervous breakdown." When Bradley offered to be sent to Europe, Powers rejected him because Bradley was an intellectual economist and not a hard-nosed reporter:I don't want any more economists, sages, or oracles bombinating over our cables.He abruptly awoke from a scary dream in his own Springwood bedroom.When he opened his window, he saw that the whole house was flying in the sky above the city, as items of furniture crashed to the floor.Everyone is leaving him for the holidays.He always vacations in the same place in England, further evidence of his lack of camaraderie and alienation from others.Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression era, the film's main concerns (and those of the oppressed Tramp) echo those of millions of people at the time - unemployment, poverty, and hunger.