A man and his young son embark on a summer motorcycle road trip across America's Northwest, seeking to reconnect and explore the open country.
But this is no ordinary vacation. As the miles unspool, the journey transforms into a profound philosophical inquiry, a rolling Chautauqua that seeks to answer one of life's most essential questions: What is best?
On a vintage motorcycle, the narrator grapples not only with the mechanics of his machine but with the very nature of Quality itself. He confronts the deep split in modern life between a cold, rational view of technology and a romantic, emotional engagement with the world, searching for a way to heal the divide. Yet, the biggest questions lie within.
Dogging his every thought is the ghost of his former self, a brilliant and dangerous man named Phaedrus, whose obsessive pursuit of truth led to his own destruction. This cross-country odyssey is more than a search for answers; it is a confrontation with a haunting past, a flight for sanity, and a powerful meditation on how we ought to live.
This profound and deeply personal story is an exploration of life's most fundamental questions—a search for how to live, not just how to get by.