Paul Steeves, a San Franciscan, transcends his working-class roots to become a Silicon Valley high-technology entrepreneur. The oldest of three children, Steeves makes top grades in high school, helps out at his father's delicatessen and dreams of one day owning the world (or at least a large chunk of it). While attending People's University, Steeves and his best friend Hank build the Cherry, a viable desktop computer that both men believe will revolutionize the world (or, at the very least, become an enormously popular toy). Steeves, a part-time employee at a Market Street arcade called Amazement, stores the Cherry in the arcade's back room. He makes a gift of the computer to Amazement's owner, Fred Bayliss, and pressures Bayliss into investing in the computer company Hank and Steeves are eager to create. The rest, as they say, is history.