Nebraska, 1954. Emmett Hayes leaves a reformatory with one dream: take his younger brother Billy and start fresh in California. But two escapees from the same institution have other plans. Duchess and Woolly arrive with stories of an inheritance waiting in New York-and a way to get there.
When Emmett wakes to find Billy gone with them, he follows. The train east carries four strangers toward an uncertain future. By the time they reach New York, they've become something unexpected: a family. Woolly's inheritance comes with a condition-drive the Lincoln Highway coast to coast, sending postcards from every state.
Two thousand miles of open road stretch ahead. A detective follows behind. A farm foreclosure waits back home. And somewhere in the distance, a girl named Sally keeps a letter folded in her pocket.
The road isn't about where you're going-it's about who you're with