On his first day in graduate school Clark Weston kills the department head’s dog. Things get worse from there. Rejecting nerdy scientist stereotypes, The Department packs eccentric graduate students and faculty into the high-pressure environment of a physics department. Clark Weston wants to study quantum gravity, Oliver Kilter earns money for tuition by filming porn, the temperature drops whenever Jerry Mephisto enters the room, there’s a secret in the basement, and nobody can understand Hideo Kamakura.