Hank and Tony travel to an academic conference, where their differing philosophies on work and life cause friction; Lily mediates trouble in Julie and Russell's marriage.
William Henry "Hank" Devereaux, Jr., the unlikely English department chairman at the badly underfunded Railton College in the Pennsylvania rust belt, is coping with a midlife crisis. Just as Hank's life begins to unravel, his wife, Lily, also begins to question the path she is on as the vice principal of the local high school, and the choices she has made.