Charlie is a truck driver in the not-too-distant future, where trucking is mostly automated due to self-driving vehicles. She is in her early 30s, cynical, irreverent, and depressed. She takes a job driving from Seattle to New York, with delivery stops along the route. She is put in touch with Zen, a young, innocent, idealistic journalist. Zen wants to profile Charlie as one of the last representatives of a dying profession. Zen asks to drive along with Charlie on her trip to observe first-hand, and Charlie agrees.
During the drive, Charlie has frequent flashbacks to her upbringing and her relationship with her sister, Ginny. Ginny was smart, talented, and charming, superior to Charlie in almost every way. Charlie loathed the constant comparisons, and developed her apathetic, cavalier tendencies as a coping mechanism. Despite attending Berkeley, Charlie spent her early adulthood working odd jobs, casually hooking up with both men and women, and being a constant disappointment to her parents. She is deeply affected when Ginny is diagnosed with terminal cancer and passes away.
Zen and Charlie drive cross-country, enduring the monotony of never-ending long highways and developing unexpected and tumultuous intimacy. But Charlie is haunted by the memory of Ginny and a lifetime of bitterness. Even as they meet new friends and fellow travelers along the way, Charlie can't break away from her inner turmoil. With each twist and turn of the journey, Charlie is met with obstacles and opportunities. As her past creeps up into her present, she must decide how and if she can figure out how to be happy.All Rights Reserved