Mark Sternum, a professor who teaches spelling and grammar, is full of droll observations about the English language but leads an otherwise detached life. One day, however, an African-American single mother who has failed the college's basic skills test for the last possible time accuses him of prejudgism' - and Mark is fired. As his case makes national headlines, he turns to a small Shaker community . As the scrambled pieces of Mark's life and the simple ways of the Shakers begin to merge, Mark learns to find a new kind of beauty in life.'