At a Pennsylvania college, Charlie Thurber is a good teacher without publications. His tenure review is in three months, and he's trying to get an article in print. Out of the blue, the dean announces that a new assistant professor will join them, a scholarly young woman from Yale. Charlie now faces competition. His best friend Jay, an anthropologist looking for Sasquatch, urges Charlie to declare war on the new colleague. He gives in to his better judgment and goes along. Meanwhile, his father hates the local assisted living facility where he lives, Charlie tries to connect with a woman he sees on television, and one of his students makes a pass. Is tenure in the works?

A young computer whizz kid accidentally connects into a top secret super-computer which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It challenges him to a game between America and Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to World War 3. Can he convince the computer he wanted to play a game and not the real thing ?