The story

Dr. George Pflug is dean of the public health school at Dupont University, which aspires to be known as the “Harvard of the South.” A conflict-avoidant divorced epidemiologist with an enlarged prostate, Pflug also suffers from imposter syndrome after being recruited to Dupont from a state school up north. Unused to the academic dirty dealing at Dupont, his trusting Midwestern nature is tested by the machinations of back-stabbing fellow deans, mealy-mouthed administrators, and entitled billionaire board members. Then he stumbles across evidence that international students are being exploited for sex, and matters threaten to spiral seriously out of control. After a night of debauchery at the home of the president of Dupont that may have involved an attempt to get blackmail material on him, Pflug teams up with his ex-wife, along with a Mother Earth-like social justice warrior and a local civil rights attorney. Putting his career and reputation on the line—and maybe his life—he faces his fears and musters the will to fight back. Who said it was safe at the top of the Ivory Tower?