From a young age, Michelle is determined to rise above the limitations of collective belief systems such as getting a "real job" or relying on money. She forgoes a college education, and instead creates her own eclectic lifestyle that involves travel, psychedelics, being voluntarily homeless, and hitch hiking her way to what she is certain will be a brighter future for herself. Set in the counterculture of the 1990's, Michelle gains spiritual insights throughout her haphazard adventures while backpacking through Alaska, Thailand, Mexico and Central America. Despite several setbacks, she continues to press forward with utmost optimism as she struggles to gain her traditional parents' approval and to integrate her free-spirited idealisms into something meaningful on the material plane.