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. Told in the first person by Hank, the series is adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo's novel "Straight Man," which was inspired by his own experiences teaching at colleges.