Childhood ends for Calvin Moore on a muddy hillside when he finds his beloved show horse strangled in her broken halter. "Horse killer," some say. Grief and guilt hang heavy. Calvin's bleak home life offers little solace. Calvin's step-father offers twenty dollars if he'll leave home forever. When grief manifests as rage, Calvin plunges head-long down the hard road toward self-discovery. It's 1955. Ray Kroc opens the world's first McDonald's; Blackboard Jungle premieres; Elvis Presley signs with RCA; and James Dean finds immortality on Highway 466. Rebellion and change are in the air. "That Calvin, he'll amount to something," folks around the the riding stable have been heard to say. But will he? As the hills above San Francisco Bay turn from green to golden, Calvin is faced with hard choices and perilous temptations. Night riding or joy riding? Horses or Harleys? Do the right thing or wrong? Leave home--or stay?