November, 1963. Soon likely to be drafted, Andrew Buchanan is in New Orleans with his parents, in hopes of finding a college that will take him before the Army does. A glitch in plans requires that his parents leave him in the party city alone. Andrew quickly learns to drink all too well, as he befriends a wild variety of locals, including a girl, that he could never have met in his quiet Pennsylvania town.

Disturbed by events local and national, and much too friendly with the taste of beer, Andrew pulls himself together. He sticks out his thumb and hitchhikes. Not north, toward home, but west, cashing in his airplane ticket as grubstake.

Along the road, and at stops between, Andrew finds events far stranger than Bourbon Street…