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. Many critics believed that the book was an auto-biographical account of something tragically lost in youth. In the few interviews he ever gave, Tom, when asked about that would just shrug and repeat that it was just a work of fiction. And yet, like the character in Tom's book, he and his dog wander deserted Western highways and stop beside makeshift memorials to the dead. He keeps a notebook with the names of the dead and some of their stories, along with what song was playing on his truck's radio when he found them. He called those jottings, Road Songs and for some unknown reason, they gave him peace and haunted him in equal measure. Tom Ryder is running out of time, but he is sure that what's he searching for are just beyond the mountains in the distance.