At twelve years old, Cornelius secretly takes over his father's job at a silent film theater in New York's East Village. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself--as Professor John Woman, a man who will spread his father's teachings into the classrooms of his unorthodox southwestern university and beyond. But there are other individuals who are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman, and who might know something about the facts of his hidden past.