The Book cover tells the story in a nutshell. In 1954 18-year-old Emmett comes home from juvenile detention, only to find that the farm he grew up in falls to the bank.

So he and his young brother Billy set out in an old Studebaker to drive to San Francisco on the Lincoln Highway. But two of Emmett´s prison friends want to go with them, and instead of San Francisco their destination turns out to be New York.

The book is like a road movie, set in the fifties, so that the author can dwell on his childhood days, a reverie the reader is not prepared to follow.

 In addition Towles develops his story with lots of totally redundant elaborations, so the reader has to say good-bye to him and leave his protagonists be.