In the 1940s an adventurous youth flees New England for Los Angeles, a city vibrating with wartime energy and sex. Beach culture and a pretty girl captivate him, but he leaves to tramp alone far into Mexico and climb Paricutin, an exploding volcano. Back in L.A., he drives across the country with his mother in pursuit of her escaping lover. Alone again, he pedals an overloaded bicycle to Canada and hitches a ride on the Alaska Highway with a short-tempered sourdough. The old-timer has bet a quart of whisky on the driving time, and a dangerous washout lies ahead. In Fairbanks, Territory of Alaska, he embraces frontier life, mixing with cheechakos and pioneers, dreamers and realists. He meets a young prostitute at the notorious Line. He works as cement handler and railroad gandy dancer and becomes a student at the University of Alaska. Then he's off for Whitehorse to canoe the Yukon."