In 1966, a teenager dreams of finding ultimate wisdom and writing timeless poetry. Horrified by the likelihood of combat service in Vietnam, he embarks on a hitchhiking journey to evade the military draft. He becomes a homeless drifter estranged from family, and finds brief notoriety as a vagabond poet, followed by publishing success, before careening beyond the limits of language.

Over the course of 22,000 reckless miles he experiences a Sixties history long overlooked: Wells Street in Chicago's Old Town, the mimeograph-revolution waged by Cleveland poets, an outlaw Route 66, the San Francisco Diggers serving daily meals, the Central Park Easter Be-In, a head shop at the epicenter of St Marks Place in the East Village, and the travesty of post-Summer-of-Love Haight-Ashbury.

In a story arc of loss, exile, and self-reliance, here a roadside view of a lost America never glimpsed by historians, journalists, or celebrities.