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.

When disgraced Harvard philosophy scholar Jack Griffin loses out on his dream job, he is forced to return to Toledo, Ohio, and work as a high school Advanced Placement biology teacher.

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.