Brian Owens was once a prominent professor of quantum mechanics until an accident stripped him of his credentials; he now teaches at a community college. In order to reclaim his stature, he is trying to build the world’s first teleportation machine in his garage at night. All of this while being romantically pursued by one of the art professors at the college, avoiding the crazy old lady next door, and being harassed by the loan sharks he borrowed money from to build his machine. But his biggest problem is he can’t get his machine to work.​

Joe, a rancher in the mountains of Colorado, has his life of solitude interrupted when his luckless son gets paroled from prison and moves back in with him, bringing his ill-fated ways along.