It?s 1979, and Simon?s life is unraveling before his very eyes. He doesn?t get along with his father, his girlfriend has just dumped him, he?s in trouble with the school authorities, and he?s been arrested for drinking underage and smoking pot?not to mention selling the stuff. And to top it off, he?s adopted, and his parents act like it?s something shameful. He wrestles open his parents? lockbox, finds the names and last known location of his birth parents, and decides to leave Mansfield, Iowa, and head to Texas in search of his origins. His encounters with an Elvis impersonator (who may just be the missing man himself) along with a young woman on the lam and two hapless drifters add up to a picaresque road-trip tale that is not only very funny but honest in the telling.