Charlie Martin awakes Christmas morning to a noise so loud it could wake the dead. Most would think Charlie would have one foot in the grave at his age, but he is still spry and alert. He is, as he proudly says, one hundred years, one month, and fourteen days old. Charlie finds the culprit-a high-definition TV-blaring away at full volume. Before he can silence it, he sees a picture of Noel on a morning television show observing her hundredth birthday. He has not seen Noel since her eighteenth birthday, when he went to her home to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Charlie sets off from his Maryland home in his classic red Rocket 88 Oldsmobile convertible to find Noel in Florida. Terry, a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker, joins Charlie in his journey down historic old U.S. Route One, on a three-day quest to find Noel.