A beer-bellied, underachieving kindergarten teacher from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dex (Donal Logue) thinks he has mastered a Zen-like system of seduction with women. Dex and his male friends have literally twisted the quotations and philosophies of Lao-tzu, Heidegger and Taoism into their own foolproof guidelines for dating. "The Tao of Steve" supposedly transforms "ordinary Joes" into charismatic Steve McQueens. In fact, Dex's delusional view of himself as the next Adonis comes crashing down when he falls for Syd (Greer Goodman), an old college acquaintance who is immune to his charms and forces him to confront his somewhat over-inflated, shallow existence.