Ted Crisp is the head of Research & Development at Veridian Dynamics, a top-line corporation, striving to make it to the top. Ted has an uneasy friendship with his boss, Veronica Palmer - she is always wanting something from him to add to the business, from bio-warfare pumpkins, to uncomfortable leather chairs. Dr. Lem Hewitt and Dr. Phil Myman are two research analysts that work in Ted's group and are always competing against one another to get ahead. Linda Zwordling is a young intern and test consultant to office-test the various experiments the lab puts out. Ted is a recent divorcée raising a 10-year-old daughter, named Rose, after his wife left him to find herself as well as to "save the world". Ted's latest assignment involves recruiting Phil to be cryogenetically frozen as a public relations experiment for the company's research purposes.