Don Tillman wants to get married. Thirty-nine and an assistant genetics professor, Don explains that he has tried a number of different methods to meet his future wife—including being set up by friends—so far without success.

Don explains that he has two friends: Gene Barrow, head of the university’s Psychology Department, and his wife, Claudia, who is a clinical psychologist. These friends have tried to help him with the Wife Problem, but the traditional dating paradigm fails to help Don find a wife.

Don realizes that there is something unappealing about him, despite his other advantages, which include intelligence, height, physical fitness, and a prestigious, well-paid job. Don hits upon a solution to the Wife Problem when he agrees to give a lecture on Asperger’s Syndrome for Gene.

Gene bows out of the lecture because he has an opportunity to have sex with a Chilean professor who is visiting Melbourne. Though he is married to Claudia, Gene claims that he has an open marriage and is conducting “research” by having sex with women from as many different countries as possible.