John Hawkins is a successful assistant district attorney from New York being considered as the next candidate for district attorney. But things change when the Seattle D.A., a friend of his, calls to tell him that his 16-year-old son, Dylan is in trouble, and he is tired of letting his wealthy grandparents bail him out. The D.A. tells John that he plans to legally come hard on his son unless he takes responsibility for him. It seems that John has been estranged from Dylan for seven years due to his alcoholism and he felt that Dylan would be better off with his grandparents, while he tries to fix his own problems first. John agrees to take Dylan and decides to take Dylan a ride on his old motorcycle and go around so that they can reestablish a relationship. Along the way they run into all sorts of people whose lives they get involved with before moving on.

John helps a waitress break into the music business. Dylan looks @ a used motorcycle he'd like to have for his 16th birthday.

Dylan falls for a Huderite girl (""like the Amish, but with phones"") and runs off from his dad, to spend time with the girl at her family's colony.