Danny DeVito plays an advertising man who is slowly sliding downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up for unemployment. One day they find him a job; Teaching thinking skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is no structure set up for the class. He begins by having them write and summarize books and magazines they are reading. When one of them asks him to describe what he is reading, he gives a National Enquirer's view of _Hamlet_, (Incest, murder, intrigue.) They ask to read it with him and the structure of the class is born; They will read _Hamlet_ and critically analize it.