It's 1940, during the twilight of America's Great Depression era. John, a teenage hobo, after spending some months in Wisconsin without any signs of success getting a profitable job, decides to train hop on a freight train heading from Wisconsin to Iowa. Aside from not finding a job being the reason for John's departure from Wisconsin, he is also on a wanted poster as a suspected rapist for a recent rape case there. John is not just running away from Wisconsin because of his prolonged lack of job, this time, he is on the run because no one will believe that a tramp is innocent of a rape case. Mary runs away from home in Wisconsin after her parents made it clear that she will be moving to the monastery on the eve of her 18th birthday, which conflicts with her dreams of being a teenage-star actress in Hollywood. Coincidentally, she chooses to train hop on the same freight train John is hiding in. It's a long journey from Wisconsin to Iowa and that of multiple shortstops in different towns. Despite these two's tumultuous first encounter while aboard the train; John's misconstrued past in Wisconsin, and Mary's perceived arrogance and innocence; they will have all the time in the world to realize that they have more in common than the differences they rest of the world judges them for. Also, if they are to survive the hazards of being a hobo, they will have to unite than divide. What started as a journey of two people running away from their scary pasts will metamorphose into one of America's greatest love stories, just before the start of World War II.