- We meet Jim Dixon while he's in mid-conversation with a guy named Professor Welch, who's invited him to his house for coffee after classes.
- Although the word "conversation" might be overstating things—it's more like Jim is smiling and nodding while Professor Welch is going on and on about the difference between flutes and recorders.
- We learn pretty quickly that Jim needs to stay on Professor Welch's good side, since Welch is Jim's boss at the university and he wants to get a long-term job there.
- Now that the school day is over, Jim gets ready to accompany Welch back to his house for coffee.
- Welch seems to have forgotten that he ever gave the invitation to begin with, which shows us that he's kind of a bumbling old fool.
- Welch invites Jim to come to his house again for an entire weekend of music and theatre that Jim knows is going to be unbelievably boring. But he can't say no.
- At this point, Jim wonders how Welch ever got a job at the university to begin with. There doesn't seem to be any aspect of professor-ing that Welch is actually good at.
- While talking to Welch, Jim asks about a woman named Margaret. Seems this Margaret person is living with the Welches while she recovers from a bad breakup.
- Jim has hung out with her a few times in the past few weeks, and is starting to feel like he's trapped into being her new boyfriend.
- Oh yeah, then the narrator mentions that Margaret tried to kill herself after her last boyfriend dumped her. So you can see why Jim might not want to suddenly break things off with her.
- Jim gets into Welch's junk-heap of a car. Not that Welch could ever drive a nice car anyway. The old man might be the worst driver on the planet.
- When they finally hit the open road, Welch basically tells Jim he'll need to publish something if he wants to keep his job.
- Jim answers that he might have found a place to publish an article about medieval shipbuilding techniques, which Jim considers to be one of the most pointless things a human being has ever written. But hey, if it's the key to a job, he'll do it.
- Just before the ride's over, Welch says that Jim will have to deliver a public lecture on behalf of the History Department.
- Jim knows his standing at the university isn't very good, and that he'll need to give an amazing lecture if he's going to have any hope of keeping his job.