Once Mandy and her childhood sweetheart Stewart decide they've had enough of their dead-end lives in 1954 small-town Wisconsin, they elope, rob a bank to finance their future, and go off in search of their happily-ever-after. Their path takes them from town to town and from crime to crime, from grand theft auto and armed robbery to assault with a deadly weapon and bank fraud—and to the accidental kidnapping of Denny, a twelve-year old boy from a similar background, who they can't return to his hometown. Together, the threesome meet up with people both sympathetic and hostile, find out how strange the world can be, and discover the true meaning family in order to create their own place in society.