It has been two years since Hope—Jack and Jenna Tanner's bright and beautiful only child—walked out of her off-campus apartment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and vanished into the night. Since then, Jenna's grief has led to a mental breakdown and she is in a psychiatric hospital. Jack has been unable to concentrate on business and has lost his job as a tax attorney. Meanwhile, Slater Babcock, Hope's college boyfriend, and the only suspect in her disappearance, is enjoying the decadent life of a rich man's spoiled son in Key West, Florida. The police have no solid evidence of Slater's guilt, but Jack is convince that Slater is responsible. Jack has never been the adventurous type. But he decides he must confront Slater and somehow get him to reveal what happened to Hope. To do this, he knows he needs to become a man of decisive action. So he buys a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and sets out on a 1,900-mile journey to the southern-most tip of the country, to Land's End Key West.
Along the way, Jack encounters a series of characters unlike any he's ever met, including Hannah, the young street hustler; the Devil's Disciples, certainly the most unlikely sort of motorcycle gang there ever was; a psychopathic 300-pound survivalist nicknamed Big Foot; and, in Key West, a man who looks and behaves like Ernest Hemingway, and who may or may not actually believe that he is the great writer.
