Sam Breen, earthling, is pretty much standard issue for a recent college graduate. He's got a bad attitude, a massive student loan, and his eye on a snappy jetpack. So he does what any graduate of the class of 2959 would do: He signs up to teach English as a foreign language. Sam ends up on the underwater planet of Octavia, populated by eight-armed beings that have a voracious appetite for English ... and a few other things, as Sam discovers. But at the spaceport, someone steals his Speak-O-Matic translator, he gets into a barfight, and things go downhill -- or underwater -- from there. Still, Sam learns more than he teaches: from Mr. Zik, a singer of melancholy songs; from a robot named 9/3; and from Jinya, whose undulating tentacles make Sam forget all about human appendages.