In his new job as an English professor, Tarzan finds himself annoyed by his students, hounded by his department chair, and alienated by the world around him, with solace only from his girlfriend Jane. Naturally, hijinks ensue.

Cutthroat department politics leave a young English professor in danger of losing his job and falling into obscurity. To save himself, he seizes on a playful lie that soon spirals far out of his control.

Three very different people—a vulgar comedian, an eloquent Cambridge graduate with a chemistry doctorate, and a proud historian—deliver three speeches posthumously honoring the same chemist and lend comic but profound insight into the recipient's multi-faceted character and contributions.

When a young father is hired for an English instructorship position, he struggles to balance playing the role of a teacher and meeting the university’s demands for a published scholar.

When he comes back home from work to find that his wife has been cheating on him, a mad scientist builds a time machine to go back in time and ensure that her mother never gives birth to her, but things don’t turn out as expected.

Following a messy breakup, an MIT graduate and a PhD student at Indiana University separately talk about the problems in their former relationship in two spliced-together conversations, exploring conflicts surrounding language, intimacy, commitment, and intellectualism.

When a Soviet state official attempts to coerce a celebrated poet into apologizing for a political joke he made, the official gets a taste of his own predatory medicine at the hand of the poet's vengeful wife.

When a philosophy professor is called into a committee meeting for inappropriate behavior, she stews over what got her here, and how.

A female professor at a contemporary university remembers an old conversation with a former teacher of hers, which prompts her to reconsider her job, solitude, and love of reading.

A mathematics professor must contend with faith, loneliness, and academic mediocrity when a past mistake comes crashing back into his life.