Howard Ferp is a brilliant, misanthropic mathematics doctoral candidate. Just as he is about to complete his thesis and win the city-wide chess tournament, his carefully calculated life is turned upside down when he learns that his work study position has been eliminated. Forced to start a new job in the psychology department, Howard encounters two kindred spirits, his supervisor Karen and a doomed laboratory dog. Howard risks everything he thought important to save the animal and, in doing so, discovers his humanity.