Paul Harris works at a small research facility on the outskirts of Boston. After a weekend tryst with a co-worker leaves him wanting more, his unreciprocated desires gradually mold into an acute infatuation. When Danielle takes interest in a new scientist at the laboratory, Paul’s suppressed resentments and perverse delusions finally become unhinged, triggering a horrific course of events that mercilessly engulf a tortured past and fugitive present.

This is an update of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” that changes the genders of the main characters. Hannah Higgins attempts to turn blue-collar Boston beer vendor Elliot Doolittle into a viable candidate and inadvertently learns something of Elliot’s side of life.

The story focuses on a middle-school math teacher Olive and her relationship with Henry which spans 25 years over the four parts. It is based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.