In 2024, Reina, a copyeditor at Stellar Publications, attends a meeting where her boss, Brenda Scythe, announces a major redesign for Journey magazine. The first new issue will focus on Spain. To Reina’s disappointment, her workplace rival, Matt Calhoun, is named the lead writer for the project. His assignment is to walk the Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage trail. Reina, who despises Matt for his condescending attitude and his nickname for her, “Velma,” had hoped for a writing assignment herself. Distracted during the meeting, she agrees to a task without realizing what it is. Her best friend and colleague, Liam, informs her afterward that she has been assigned to cover the food segment for the Spain issue. As the meeting ends, Matt taunts Reina by whistling the Scooby-Doo theme song.

Isabelle meets her 16-year-old brother, Xavier, in the ruins. He informs her that Miguel and Manuel Sansas—the twin sons of a rival family—have died in a car accident. Their deaths are critical because a communal vote over the development of a mountain in their village, Dur, ended in a tie four months ago, with the twins unable to vote as they had not yet turned 18. Their upcoming two votes would have broken the tie in Senor Sansas’s favor. Now, Isabelle’s single uncast vote is the deciding factor.

Xavier warns that Senor Sansas, the twins’ father, believes Isabelle’s father is responsible for the accident. He is heading to the school with Enric and Jesus, his two oldest sons, to seek revenge. Xavier took the back mountain route specifically to arrive before them. Isabelle realizes that as long as her vote remains uncast, the dispute stays deadlocked, which may protect her family. Deciding she must flee alone, she quotes Joan of Arc and disappears into the woods.

Reina becomes absorbed in researching her food assignment for Journey and cancels Friday night plans with her boyfriend, John. As part of her production-day workflow, she logs into Brenda’s email to monitor for last-minute tweaks from editors or contributors. She discovers an urgent message from Matt stating that he was mugged and his passport, wallet, and laptop were stolen, forcing him to postpone his flight to Spain. The news reminds Reina of how Matt sabotaged the career of her late mentor, a kind writer named Karen Lindum. Recalling that her own father had always wanted to walk the Camino with her, Reina sees an opportunity. She replies to Matt’s email, copying Brenda, and volunteers to take the assignment, stating that her passport is ready. She sends the email before she can lose her nerve.

After two days on the run, Isabelle is weak from hunger. She considers asking for work at a tavern but is forced to hide when she sees one of Senor Sansas’s cousins driving by, clearly searching for her. She retreats into the woods, feeling hopeless and angry at her father for starting the feud over a proposed ski resort that escalated into a dangerous conflict. Determined to survive, she pushes west. She then recalls a history lesson about the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route across Spain where travelers are said to be cared for and protected. Clinging to the idea that “the Camino provides” (27), she decides to make it her destination.

Brenda approves Reina’s trip, sending her a plane ticket. Reina visits her Aunt Robbie to borrow her late father’s old backpack for the journey. As they prepare the dilapidated pack, Reina thinks about her Uncle David, her father’s younger brother, who was flying the plane when a bird struck the engine, causing it to stall and crash. Her father was killed and David was seriously injured. A few days after the accident, David hobbled out of the hospital on crutches and was never heard from again.

Inside the backpack, they discover photo negatives, her father’s official pilgrim passport filled with stamps from his 1997 journey, and a black journal. Reina reads the first entry, in which her father describes starting the Camino with David. She resolves to read the journal one day at a time, syncing her father’s experience with her own.

Exhausted after three days of hiking, Isabelle arrives in St. Jean Pied de Port, the French town where the Camino de Santiago begins. Other pilgrims inform her she needs a pilgrim passport to stay at the designated hostels, or “albergues.” She earns a baguette for breakfast by washing dishes at a local bakery. While waiting for the pilgrim office to open, she meets three American walkers: Erika, Jen, and Joe. To conceal her identity, Isabelle introduces herself as “Joan.” After they all receive their passports, she sets off with her new companions.

Now in St. Jean Pied de Port, Reina reads her father’s first journal entry about beginning the Camino with David. The first day’s hike into the Pyrenees mountains is far more difficult than Reina anticipated. She quickly becomes overheated and exhausted, and her flower-embroidered Doc Martens cause painful blisters. As she struggles, she meets Ted and Ned, two Canadian brothers walking the trail for Ned’s health. The three continue the grueling ascent together and eventually reach Orisson, a mountain refuge. While resting there, Reina reads her father’s next journal entry, written from the same spot. In it, he describes seeing a beautiful woman with “copper hair,” whom he refers to as an “angel” (47).

Isabelle’s group, now including Dan, on his fourth Camino, and his daughter Emily, struggles up the mountain. Dan informs Isabelle that they have crossed the unmarked border from France into Spain. As the most physically capable of the group, Isabelle helps by carrying the pack for a struggling Erika. One of Isabelle’s sneakers begins to fall apart, causing a blister. She arrives at the monastery in Roncesvalles ahead of the others and is told she can stay for free. In return, she sweeps the entryway. When her companions finally arrive, they are all emotional but relieved to have completed the first difficult stage of their journey.

Reina wakes up at the Roncesvalles monastery feeling defeated, her feet covered in painful blisters. She is ready to quit, but Ted and Ned find her. Ted treats her blisters by threading them with a needle to drain the fluid. The treatment allows her to continue walking.

The group expands to include a Scottish man named Gordon and several others. After an eight-hour trek to the town of Zubiri, they discover the public albergue is full, forcing them to walk another five kilometers to the next town. While stopping for a beer, Reina receives an email from Brenda: Matt has obtained an emergency passport and is on his way. The assignment is now a competition for the feature story.

In a church in the town of Puente la Reina, Isabelle prays for the souls of Miguel and Manuel Sansas. She reflects on her journey, grateful for the kindness of strangers, including someone who anonymously left her a backpack full of supplies at the Roncesvalles monastery.

Outside, Isabelle encounters David and Peter, two American brothers she saw at a previous pilgrim dinner. She declines their invitation for a beer, needing to tend to her feet at the river. Peter, the quieter brother, follows her with a first-aid kit. He gently cleans and bandages her toe, then gives her his own sandals to wear. As he takes her hand to help her up, they both feel a sudden, powerful spark of connection.