A cash-strapped young couple inherits a grand country house, only to find it is both falling apart and teeming with the ghosts of former inhabitants.
Da Jack Griffin, en vanæret filosofiforelæser fra Harvard, mister sit drømmejob, tvinges han til at vende tilbage til Toledo i Ohio og undervise i gymnasiet i biologi på universitetsniveau. Da han ankommer til Whitlock High School, viser Jack utvetydigt, at han ikke vil undervise i biologi. Han indser, at han har et undervisningslokale fuld af eliteelever og vælger i stedet at bruge de unge til sin egen fordel.
Ted, a successful but morally conscious man, runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies. No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his superhuman boss, Veronica, and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he's starting to take a closer look at the company's extremely questionable practices... especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted's scientists for testing purposes.
In a blue-collar community where the high stress of working in a refinery is balanced by the comedic high-wire antics of its plant workers, The Trades centres around pipefitter Todd and his sister and roommate, Audrey, who follows in her big brother’s footsteps pursuing a career in the trades as a carpenter, just like their father Rod.