Despite living in a small Michigan farm town in 1966, teenaged Eddie Defoe has the heart of a poet, writing songs and playing guitar in a band, The Caretakers, founded by his best friend, Johnny Janowski. Johnny, a force of nature, has inspired Eddie to read classics and Eddie is obsessed with the romantic poem by John Keats "Hyperion". It guides him through a series of adventures, beginning with the accidental death of his abusive father and The Caretakers winning a recording contract in the first "Battle of the Bands" in Michigan.

But when The Caretakers record their first album in Hollywood, things turn sour. Their manager absconds with their money and Johnny, formerly the epitome of charm and confidence, has a nervous breakdown, suddenly leaving the band and heading for San Francisco.

Eddie, unable to live back in Michigan, or with his mother and sister in New Orleans, begins his journey to the West to find Johnny and try and reignite their musical careers. This takes him to a drug-fueled orgy in a surreal St. Louis club, a free-love commune in Arizona, and finally to San Francisco just in time for the Human Be-In in 1967, and the historic "Summer of Love".

While meeting historic characters like Jerry Garcia and Richard Brautigan, Eddie still is haunted by a series of near misses, trying to find Johnny. When the commercialism of the outside world threatens to implode the hippie movement in the Bay Area, Johnny finally makes a last, desperate contact with Eddie, who then tries to reach him before Johnny self destructs.