The Lincoln Highway

In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is released from a juvenile work farm in Kansas, where he served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter, and driven back to his Nebraska home. With his mother gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head west to California for a fresh start. However, this carefully laid plan is upended when Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm, Duchess and Woolly, have stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They have a different scheme: to journey east to New York City to claim a hidden fortune. This unexpected twist forces Emmett, Billy, and their new companions on a propulsive, ten-day road trip across 1950s America, a journey filled with unforeseen challenges, moral dilemmas, and the unexpected kindness of strangers, ultimately redefining their understanding of family, freedom, and the American dream.