A carousing college professor's life takes a series of unimaginable turns, and all the old stories are given a new twist, when he begins to have surreal hallucinations and learns he may not be long for this world.

In 1977, two respected scientists, Ben Morin and his wife Catherine quit their jobs at the university to conduct an experiment they think will revolutionize our understanding of human identity. The project aims to raise three children contrarily to their genetic predispositions to prove the ultimate power of nurture over nature. They want to prove that everyone has the same potential to become anything. Maya, a newborn girl adopted from two feebleminded parents, is raised to be smart, while...