Ray Seiden

A mathematical genius discovers a link between numbers and reality, and thus believes he can predict the future.

In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts.

When her scientist ex-boyfriend discovers a portal to travel through time -- and brings back a 19th-century nobleman named Leopold to prove it -- a skeptical Kate reluctantly takes responsibility for showing Leopold the 21st century. The more time Kate spends with Leopold, the harder she falls for him. But if he doesn't return to his own time, his absence will forever alter history.

Raised in an insular Polish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn where he's destined to become a poor baker like his father, Kaz Malek attempts to steal from a Russian mobster and run away with the girl of his dreams, Eva. Not cut out for a life of crime, he ends up with a $10,000 debt to the mobster who threatens to kill his father. Unable to pay or face his father's death, Kaz comes up with a novel plan: he'll hang himself and sell tickets to the show. He is surprised to find, however, that the mobster as well as the neighborhood are extremely supportive of this idea... not to mention his father. But even if he can sell the tickets will he really go through with it? By the time this dark comedy reaches its surprising conclusion, Kaz learns that sometimes embracing death is the only way to a better life.