The year is 1971 and America's long romance with higher education is coming to an end, provoked by worsening economic conditions and growing campus unrest. Unfortunately for Geoffrey Yawlings, 27 years of age and a recent Ph.D. in history from Harvard, the only job he can find is a shaky two year contract at a mediocre state university in the Pacific Northwest--geographically isolated, deeply provincial--in a state where it rains nine months a year...