Tod Stiles is the blonde, preppie son of a wealthy New York businessman, Tod who attended Yale for a few years and who grew up in privilege. Dark in complexion and temperament, Buz Murdock grew up an orphan, his education largely from the streets of Hells Kitchen and the many fights he got into in its back alleys. They become friends working for Tod’s father on the barges in the East River during the summer. After Tod’s father passes away, Tod learns that after paying off his father’s debts, he is penniless except for a Corvette that his father left to him. Both restless and unsure of their place in the world, Tod and Buz decide to travel throughout the United States together in Tod’s Corvette to find a place and vocation to set their roots also together, working odd jobs along the way to find that vocation and meeting a wide array of people who influence their lives and visa versa. After Buz contracts echo-virus and convalesces in a Cleveland hospital, Tod finds a new travel companion in Linc Case, a US Army veteran, who too is looking for his place in the world following his military stint.
