Timofey Pnin is fifty three years old. He is a Russian emigre who does not understand western culture and struggles to fit in his new home in America. He is a teacher at Waindell College. Pnin is on his way to speak at an event, but has accidentally taken the wrong bus going in completely the wrong direction. He ends up hours late for his speaking engagement. This kind of incident is typical for Pnin. He is really somewhat of a train wreck. He barely understands or speaks English, he is not a very good professor and he's slightly odd. He also has a heart condition. His living arrangements are also unorthodox for a middle aged educator. He does not have a home to call his own and lives with various friends or acquaintances whenever they have a room going spare. Currently he lives with a family by the name of Clements whose daughter has just left home after getting married, thereby freeing up a room in their home that they offer to Pnin. It's an uneasy living arrangement at first, as the three do not get along, but they develop a friendship of sorts and the living arrangement is copacetic. All in all he is not the most obvious hero for a novel.
Dr Liza Wind is Pnin's ex-wife. The two are not in touch, which makes it all the more strange that she has written him a letter telling him that she would like to see him and try to become part of his life again. Most people would be immediately suspicious about this, but not Pnin - he is merely delighted that she is interested in any kind of reunion. When Liza visits, she is scathing about his accommodations and the fact he does not have a place of his own. She is also after money. When the two came to America she tried to convince Pnin that her child was also his child. He has never met his supposed offspring, but this does not stop Liza asking for money for him. It transpires that Liza is getting divorced - again - and has realized she will need some money to support herself and her son. Pnin is heartbroken that this is all she wanted to reconnect with him for.
Pnin's life continues to frustrate him. Isabel, the Clements' daughter, has come home (apparently her marriage did not work out). This means she will need her room back and that Pnin will need to find somewhere else to live. Surprisingly, he finds somewhere fairly quickly. He also learns that LIza's son, Victor, is interested in meeting him. Victor loathes his mother and her husband, and hopes that his "father" Pnin will be the kind of dad he has always hoped for. Pnin, of course, isn't hoping for much at all. He is just excited to meet the young man whom he had believed was his son. He carefully prepares a room for Victor. Their meeting is awkward, and Victor is more of a young adult than a child, something that Pnin had not prepared himself for. Victor stays for some time but is gone by the summer when Pnin busies himself with spending time with his friends. He is in the middle of a croquet match when he has some kind of seizure that prompts him to think about the murder of the love of his life, Mira, who died a horrible death at a Nazi concentration camp.
Nothing much improves for Pnin as the summer ends and school begins again. Dr Hagen, the head of his department, is leaving and his job will be filled by another member of the department, all of whom hate Pnin, making it fairly certain that he will be fired as soon as his only supporter leaves the university. Pnin does not read between the lines very well and of course does not realize what is going to happen. He is happy in his work and is sure that he will soon get tenure, perhaps a promotion after Dr Hagen leaves. He feels really rather positive. He makes some changes; he buys a house and decides to have his friends over for a housewarming party. The party is actually rather fun. That is, until Dr Hagen arrives, and the fun stops abruptly when he informs Pnin that he is fired.
Strangely, it is the narrator of the novel who is going to replace Pnin at the university, but we never learn who he is. He claims to have met Pnin quite a few times, but this seems unlikely. Our last view of Pnin is his car driving away; we do not know where he is going.
