The best work of physicist and Nobel Prize winner Michael Beard has already been published. He now spends his time leading a government-supported programme to combat global warming while lecturing for astronomical fees. Beard, a habitual womaniser, is in the midst of his fifth failed marriage. She is having the affair this time, though. In a bizarre event, Beard's personal and professional lives meet, giving him the chance to save both his marriage and the planet from environmental catastrophe.