Thirty-something Morris Gutman is a chronically indecisive temporary lecturer at the University of Coketown Life hasn't turned out as he planned he has a demanding wife an insomniac child & teaches demeaning courses to ungrateful English students However he is willing to do whatever it takes to negotiate a permanent departmental job even if it means finding his way through the minefield that is academia & winning over the alluring & manipulative research fellow Zoe Cable