A young Jack Kerouac crosses paths with an enigmatic drifter tied to a series of cross-country killings, pulling fellow Beats Cassady and Burroughs along for a deadly chase linked to long buried crimes. In 1951, restless and insecure after finishing the first draft of On the Road, Jack Kerouac heads west to meet a potential publisher - only to fall in with a charismatic drifter, Cal Rawley, whose charm hides a predatory darkness. As letters from William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg echo with unease, a series of roadside killings sweeps the Midwest, drawing the suspicion of Tiernan, a troubled Korean War vet and suspended NYPD officer. When Jack arrives at his supposed publishing rendezvous, he realizes he's been lured into a trap: the killer is framing him for the murders. Fleeing an FBI sting, he becomes a full-fledged fugitive, aided and abetted by his loyal friend Neal Cassady. To save Valerie, an aspiring actress he's grown close to - and to survive the drifter's pursuit - Jack must become the ultimate existential hero in his quest for experience and confront the uncomfortable truth that the American road he mythologized is haunted not just by saints, and sinners, but by predators as well.