Straitlaced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former classmate, the freewheeling John Pressman. Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah, his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago.

A distressed young woman leaves the city for the weekend with the hopes of clearing her head, but meets a mysterious hitchhiker who only confuses things more. The farther she goes to escape the more she finds herself trapped.

A day in the life of Ethan Collins, a severely depressed, foul-mouthed elementary school teacher whose wife's recent infidelity and departure have left him questioning everything in his life.