Loosely based on a true story, Red Hot Scoville is a dark comedy about famed Parke-Davis pharmacist Wilbur Scoville and his desperate struggle to save both his marriage and his career. What he soon discovers is that chili peppers might just happen to be the cure for both of his woes. Scoville is most notable for his creation of the Scoville Organoleptic Test, better known as "Scoville Scale"—the official scale used for measuring the piquancy in chili peppers.