When the woman Jake Massry lives with leaves him for another man because he can't succeed as a writer, and his old world father, on his deathbed, orders him to get a "real" job, Jake, to get his head straight, hits the highways of America in his worn-out VW bus Old Bones in search of himself and his country. It's spring1974—prices of goods are spiraling upward and President Nixon is embroiled in the Watergate fiasco. As he travels from place to place in Old Bones (or rather pushes him), Jake meets a colorful cast of characters: sexy women, gays, born-again Christians, philosophers, racists, bullies and Gary Morse, a 19-year-old hitchhiker who possesses a large "red ruby" given to him by a young heiress.