Adriana, 13, is kidnapped in Mexico City by Russian sex traffickers. Her criminal 17 y.o. brother starts looking for her. Across the border in Texas, he gets help from a cop.

Shaken by the death of his father and discouraged by his stalled career, writer Sal Paradise goes on a road trip hoping for inspiration. While traveling, he is befriended by charismatic and fearless Dean Moriarty and Moriarty's free-spirited and seductive young wife, Marylou. Traveling across the American southwest together, they strive to break from conformity and and search the unknown, and their decisions change the very course of their lives.