Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo's novel Straight Man, the series is a midlife crisis story set at Railton College, told in the first person by William Henry Devereaux Jr., who is the not-so-great-as-you-think-it-is English department chair at a severely underfunded college in Pennsylvania's Rust Belt. In the book, William Henry Devereaux Jr. is a reluctant man. His reluctance stems partly from his character, who is an anarchist by nature, and partly from his department, which is more divided than the Balkans. Over the course of a week, Devereaux will be beaten up by an angry colleague, imagine his wife having an affair with the dean of the college, wonder if a curvaceous part-time teacher is trying to seduce him with a peach pit, and threaten to execute a goose on local TV. Along the way, Devereaux will come to terms with his philandering father, the betrayal of his youthful promises, and the ominous malfunction of some of his vital functions.