MANHATTAN BY NUMBERS is the story of George Murphy, a laid-off newspaperman who has 24 hours to come up with the back rent he owes or be put out in the street. Desperately, he sets out to find an old friend who might help, yet when he discovers that his old friend has seemingly disappeared, George's search begins to take on a whole different meaning. Naderi here creates a searing portrait of Manhattan in the '90s, a deeply troubling look at a world as harsh and uncaring of human concerns as the desert landscapes so powerfully captured in WATER, WIND, DUST.