In The Water Engine, actors, an announcer, and a sound effects man present a radio play during the 1930s with unerring authenticity. The "play within the play" reveals the story of a young inventor who's found a way to run an engine on distilled water. At first ridiculed, he is courted by crooked lawyers attempting to buy the invention from him on behalf of "certain business interests." After refusing, he is threatened, and when he attempts to give his story to the newspapers, he is murdered along with his sister. The engine is destroyed, but the inventor has mailed the blueprint to a young student scientist who will configure and reveal the invention to the world. Mr. Happiness is the curtain raiser for The Water Engine. This short play takes place in a 1930s radio station. A prim, sincere, advice-to-the-lovelorn personality answers - by some magical exposition of instant radio - the letters people have written him. In an unctuous, urbane voice, "Mr. Happiness" solves everyone's problems in the style of a 1930s radio and newspaper Miss Lonelyhearts.