Marrying quickly during World War II after falling in love at first sight, a mismatched couple discovers that their different personalities and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and their family.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Michael Beard, a serial adulterer with a crumbling fifth marriage and a waning career, seizes the chance to solve all his problems when he blames the accidental death of a rival scientist on his wife's lover, and steals the man's valuable research.

Museum curator Jim Rath, having been left by his wife because of his obsession with finding evidence of the existence of a lost race which proves the aquatic ape theory of human evolution, thinks he has found an inhabitant of the magical world, who is actually a low-level employee for the Department of Homeland Security, and becomes involved in a battle of wits with the man.

Shep Knacker, having saved for years to retire to a Tanzanian island where he could live on his nest egg for the rest of his life, is stunned when his wife Glynis announces she has a rare form of cancer and needs his insurance, and while the mounting bills cut deeply into his savings, he is buoyed by rants against the health care system by his friend Jackson who is caring for a sick child.