Robert Fairweather, Associate Professor of Russian History, finds himself promoted-then summarily ejected-from Brooklyn Quintessential University (BQU) in New York City, where he has served for many years. Quietly assured he will easily find another university position equally rewarding, he discovers, alas, that is not the case! For it is the 1970s, and the academic market, especially in Robert's field, has hit rock bottom with a jolt.

Thus, Professor Fairweather, virtually penniless, must scramble as fast as he's able, to find a suitable occupation. Or even an unsuitable one. Perhaps even a job he'd never remotely dreamed of?

Follow Robert in his often hilarious struggle to keep body and soul together in the troubled economy of New York City in the early 1970s, where even the President of the United States, according to a Daily News headline, has told the City: "Drop Dead!"