The narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son becomes a text which speaks directly to the confusions and agonies of existence, detailing a personal, philosophical odyssey.

Tells a story of the narrator, his son Chris and their month-long motorcycle odyssey from Minnesota to California profoundly affected an entire generation.

A father and his teenage son travel together, by motorcycle, across the vast spaces of mid-America. But it is a relationship in crisis. Against the monotonous beauty of weather and landscape, the father's inner voice begins to relate motorcycle maintenance with the order and method that define Zen Buddhism.

Phaedrus is sailing down the Hudson River when he meets Lila Blewitt. He is drawn to her physically and interested in her intellectually. Lila prompts Phaedrus to explore conflicts of values, and finally, he formulates his 'Metaphysics of Quality', which offer a system of understanding actions according to a hierarchy of four evolutionary realms.