It is 1935. Jim Hoffman, 19 years old with no future, leaves his hometown in search of adventure on the rails and finds instead an awakening and enduring friendship in the midst of tragedy.

"In those days I seemed to be watching a fork in the road always moving away." This is Jim languishing in a small Appalachian town once known for coal mines. One afternoon he stops by the local train station diner where a chance encounter with Jacks Mackenzie, a prep school dropout, sets in motion an odyssey of self-discovery and friendship.

Riding the rails with Jacks and a Texas panhandle Irishman named Murph O'Connor, Jim is thrust into the heart of hard times - the innocent, the displaced, the disillusioned, the deranged, the idealistic, the unscrupulous, those who endured and those who could not. Here is Jim's memoir of his education in the classrooms of boxcars, rail yards and transient camps, agricultural fields and penny auctions, a Mexican cantina, Cajun cafes and long talks into the night. He has sought adventure and finds much more.