Roger Jakubiak isn't where he thought he would be at age 45: single, predictable, and working as an eighth-grade social studies teacher in the same Cleveland area school district from which he graduated. Now a suspected brain aneurysm enters the picture to remind Roger that his life is more than half-spent, and that the vacuum at its center could only be filled by his first love, Regina Tucci. Roger becomes obsessed with the idea of reconnecting with Regina after a 25-year absence. Set primarily in the late 1970s and early 1980s, THE 11:15 BENCH is a love story told by a wistful and often humorous first-person narrator.