African American Ph.D. student Maddie Hawkins loves science, but the world of academia is a minefield of sexism, racism and egoism. Blue-eyed graduate student John Pitts is a cocky genius, an individualist and a lady’s man; everything Maddie disapproves of. Yet the heart leads you where reason would forbid, "and when the fire of love is ablaze" it burns "to ashes the harvest of reason."
