In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for the only mistake he’s ever made.
With his mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed by the bank, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California to start a new life.
But when the warden drives off, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm had been stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. They have a very different plan for Emmett and Billy’s future, one that will take the four of them on a fateful journey in the opposite direction - to New York City.