Tranny Trouble

Hi! I'm new to this forum and I was hoping someone can help me. I am having a major chrisis with my transmission in my 1994 Volvo 940. It was fine last night. But today I get in to go to work and it won't go into gear. So I try and fiddle for a while and I start to smell something burning. Then smoke started coming out of the gear shift. I checked the fluid, it's fine. But this is not good. I asume it's the transmission or maybe even the starter or something, I usually do my own mechanic work but I don't know much about transmissions. If anyone's got any ideas on what this could be I'd appreciate it.