How does one launch upon a voyage of discovery about another person’s life? For Vic Wilcox, that journey begins with the slowly dawning revelation that a house with four toilet and car with a license plate bearing letters or numbers that you chose yourself just doesn’t cut. At 45, Vic’s voyage of discovery may actually begin with the revelation that his wife no longer does it for him, either. Which would perhaps not be quite so bad if passion had been supplanted by conversation. When you don’t enjoy either looking at or hearing your wife, four toilets come more to seem a symbol of failure than success.
January in the year the government has officially declared to be the year of Industry: 1986. In order to their small part in making sure the year lives up to its name, Rummidge University has asked Robyn Penrose to assist in closing the chasm that seems a natural boundary between the world of commerce and the world of academics. On the other side of that chasm sits engineering industry manage named Vic Wilcox.
The first meeting does not go particularly well, but unable to stop the forces that have mandated he allow the decade-younger Robyn to “shadow” Vic as he goes about the business of management they eventually develop a growing friendship. As the shadow follows along on Vic’s business trip to Germany, the friendship turns into something much more. For Vic, Frankfurt changes everything because he’s never cheated on his wife before and the flush of passion has him excited over the possibility of getting out of his nowhere marriage and entering into a brand new relationship with Robyn.
Robyn doesn’t view the Frankfurt connection in quite the same terms. The concept of spending the rest of her life with Vic never really entered into picture and now this personal chasm is creating tension as Vic has managed to convince those in charge that a reverse shadowing in which he gets a firmer understanding the world of academia would be entirely within the interests of the Industry Year strategy. As a result, whatever is required of Robyn in her position at Rummidge now includes a hopelessly smitten Vic tagging along.
Further tension and anxiety is placed on Robyn when it becomes clear that Thatcher Economics has create a financial crisis within the university system and Robyn’s odds of landing a full time position shrink before her very eyes. The only bright spot is finding a powerful advocate supporting her should she decide to apply for a women’s studies position at Euphoric State University. That support is a direct result of the quality of a book she is currently writing on feminism. Coincidentally, the business world of Vic is also being affected by the current state of British economics. The company that Vic works announces a merger with one of its competitors, thus eliminating Vic’s position in the process.
Leave it to the Aussies to save the day. Robyn finds out that an Uncle from Down Under has passed on, naming her as sole beneficiary of an estate worth $300,000. The chasm between business and academia is effectively bridged when she decides to invest the bulk of that inheritance in Vic’s idea for a start-up company.
Vic reconciles with his wife while Robyn decides to withdraw her candidacy for the Euphoric position and remain on temporary assignment at Rummidge amid hopes that a shot at a permanent position has not been permanently lost.
