A homeless man fleeing confiscation of the van he lives in stumbles upon a seemingly paradisiacal haven. A housewife enters a mysterious portal to another world. A coma victim, wide awake in a world of the mind, finds that the struggle between light and shadow in his dream is a life and death battle for the real world he left behind. A man who feels redundant and forsaken is offered a one-way ticket for a fresh start on an alien planet.

Those who embark upon a hero's journey are often not heroes when they begin. The choices they make and the deeds they do make them heroes as they encounter obstacles and dangers. These stories concern misfits, outliers, wanderers, loners – those who have stepped beyond the norm or who have never fitted into it. Each is confronted with the call of the open road. For some it is physical and for others metaphorical, but all must choose to either cower in mediocrity or set forth on the path of adventure and destiny.

Includes "Opting out", "Portals", "Plants", "Lady Linguist", "Evermore", "A Gathering of Shadows", "Slug", "The Precedent", "Weapons", "Downloading Catherine", "Opting In", "The Island Story, As Revised by One of the Participants", "Afterword: The Call of the Open Road".