Looking out past the barren landscape he was sure that just beyond the mountains in the distance he would find what had been lost. He believed many things that weren't true.

Tom Ryder is a writer and a reluctant film star, and, he is dying.

In 1951, Tom won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Highway Cross. Despite his claims that it was just a story, many believed it to be an autobiographical account of something tragically lost in youth. Together with his dog Josie, Tom travels down deserted Western highways and stops beside makeshift memorials that have been left by the dead's loved ones and friends. For years, he has kept a notebook with the names of the dead, some of their stories and what song was playing on his truck's radio when he found them.

Tom Ryder wanders open highways in search of something he's sure is just beyond those mountains in the distance.