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.

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.

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.