A chain of misunderstandings leads all concerned to believe that Chance is not only a businessman but also an economic prophet. He is invited to speak on national television where he talks about the only thing he understands, gardening. A series of speeches about the changing of the seasons in the garden is taken to be a sign predicting an upturn in the economy, and the public love his supposed optimism.

Kosinski's Chance is fairly young, attractive and “emotionally detached from his surroundings.” This detachment allows others to treat him as a picture of one's wishes, a blank canvas onto which one can paint one's own desires. Each of the other characters sees in the supposed Chauncey Gardiner whatever he or she wishes to see. Rand, who has no children with EE, sees him as a possible successor to his business empire

'As I have already told Mrs. Rand,' Chance began slowly, 'my house has been closed up, and I do not have any urgent business.' He cut and ate his food carefully. 'I was just expecting something to happen when I had the accident.'

'It's not easy, sir,' he said, 'to obtain a suitable place, a garden, in which one can work without interference and grow with the seasons. There can't be too many opportunities left any more. On TV ...' he faltered. It dawned on him. 'I've never seen a garden. I've seen forests and jungles and sometimes a tree or two. But a garden in which I can work and watch the things I've planted in it grow...' He felt sad.

and almost as an adopted son. EE, sexually frustrated in a marriage to a much older man, sees him as a lover and a possible second husband after Rand's death. The President sees him as the perfect candidate for Vice-President. The American TV audience sees him as the man who will lead them out of recession and into prosperity.

In deciding how to behave, Chance chose the TV program of a young businessman who often dined with his boss and the boss's daughter.

As might be expected from one who has led a sheltered existence, Chance has pretty limited social skills. All he really knows to do are to talk about the garden and to try to imitate things he's seen on TV, which actually works out quite well: “Thinking that he ought to show a keen interest in what EE was saying, Chance resorted to repeating to her parts of her own sentences, a practice he had observed on TV. In this fashion he encouraged her to continue and elaborate. Each time Chance repeated EE's words, she brightened and looked more confident. In fact, she became so at ease that she began to punctuate her speech by touching, now his shoulder, now his arm. Her words seemed to float inside his head; he observed her as if she were on television” (Kos

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