Gram's surgery forces her to arrange for Donal to travel alone to stay with his great-aunt in Wisconsin for the summer.

Donal secretly pockets a rare obsidian arrowhead from Wendell's display case after Wendell refuses to let him stay on the ranch.

Donal boards a Greyhound bus in Great Falls, carrying his memory book and plans to collect signatures from fellow travelers.

A recently released convict tries to steal Donal's suitcase from the bus storage compartment, but the driver catches and stops him.

Donal misses the Greyhound in Minneapolis after losing track of time, and a newspaper delivery van races to return him to the bus.

Red-headed camp boys board near Manitowoc and try to steal Donal's memory book, leading to a fistfight that chips his front tooth.

Aunt Kate and Herman recognize Donal immediately at the Manitowoc bus station, saying he looks just like Gram.

Aunt Kate throws away Donal's torn shirt, unknowingly discarding the thirty dollars of clothing money he had pinned inside.

After catching Donal raiding her coin drawer at night, Aunt Kate announces she will send him back to Montana immediately.

Herman unexpectedly sits beside Donal on the departing bus, revealing he has left Kate and withdrawn his share of their money.

At the Crow Fair, Donal spots his hero Rags Rasmussen and persuades him to sign the memory book before the rodeo.

Wendell spots Donal at the Crow Fair and demands the Crow police arrest him for stealing the arrowhead.

Louie Slewfoot dresses Donal in Indigenous dancer regalia so that he and Herman can slip away from the festival police.

A man posing as a retired pastor pickpockets all of Herman and Donal's money while they sleep on the bus.

After hearing Donal and Herman's full story, Rags offers both of them permanent positions on the Diamond Buckle Ranch.

When Gram's surgery forces 11-year-old Donal to travel alone from Montana to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, he faces danger and loneliness on the Greyhound bus before arriving at his great-aunt's unwelcoming home. After struggling under Aunt Kate's strict household, Donal is abruptly sent back to Montana before Gram can care for him. To his astonishment, Kate's partner Herman boards the bus beside him, and the two set off on an unplanned adventure across the American West. A narrow escape at the Crow Fair and a brazen robbery at Yellowstone leave them nearly destitute and hunted. Their desperate journey eventually delivers them to the Diamond Buckle Ranch in Wisdom, Montana, where champion cowboy Rags Rasmussen listens to their story and offers both of them a permanent home.

The headline events of Donal's summer journey across America.

Donal meets Leticia on the Greyhound and discovers she is a former coworker of Gram's, now traveling to a new job.

A small sheriff boards the bus with a handcuffed prisoner named Harv, and Donal blurts out that he knows Harv's girlfriend.

Donal arrives at Aunt Kate's house and is assigned to sleep in the attic beneath a morbid bedtime prayer wall hanging.

Herman shows Donal his greenhouse, whose ceiling panels are made from old photographic plates bearing the faces of families.

Herman reveals he has a glass left eye, lost during the Witch of November storm that destroyed his ore ship.

Donal and Aunt Kate win ten dollars at a neighborhood canasta game, but Kate refuses to share any of the winnings with him.

Herman drives Donal to a bar decorated like a ship's interior to visit his longtime friend Ernie the bartender.

Donal overhears a bitter argument in which Aunt Kate accuses Herman of having been a German soldier in the war.

Herman admits he is German, was drafted into World War I against his will, and later fled Nazi Germany as a stowaway.

Donal and Herman use Fingerspitzengefühl — intuition of the fingertips — on a Greyhound route map to decide their westbound destination.

Each morning on the bus, Herman chews burnt toast into the outline of a different country, revealing a strange daily ritual.

Donal and Herman board the last bus to Wisdom and are introduced to Highpockets and the Johnson family of migrant workers.

Donal introduces himself as Snag and Herman as One Eye to the migrant workers, claiming Herman lost his eye in a knife fight.

The ranch hand Smiley is caught wearing Donal's moccasins; other workers confront him and force him to return them.

Herman devises a trick to safely milk the volatile cow Waltzing Matilda and earns a permanent chore boy job on the ranch.

From the passengers who board and exit the Greyhound to the greenhouse conversations that draw Herman and Donal together, the story is built on smaller but essential encounters. Donal's stay in Manitowoc exposes the quiet desperation of Herman's constrained life alongside Aunt Kate, as well as the hidden truths about his past. As Donal and Herman travel west, small discoveries — Herman's daily toast ritual and their intuitive map-reading — define the texture of their unlikely partnership. Arriving in Wisdom aboard the last bus, they must earn the trust of a suspicious band of migrant workers through creative storytelling and demonstrated skill. Through a series of practical tests and close calls on the ranch, the two become permanent fixtures and find themselves with a place they genuinely want to call home.

The secondary moments and relationships that shape Donal's adventure.

Gram forces Donal to surrender the rare obsidian arrowhead he discovered on the ranch, handing it over to owner Wendell Williamson.

Leticia writes a personal inscription in Donal's memory book comparing life to an explorer's journey that smooths out in the end.

Three soldiers heading to Korea sign Donal's memory book, prompting him to reflect on his father's near-fatal D-Day landing.

An elderly couple named the Schneiders board the bus, sign the memory book, and mention their son is a doctor at Yellowstone.

Donal buys condoms in a Milwaukee restroom to use as protective sheaths for his razor-sharp obsidian arrowhead.

Donal directly confronts Herman about having fought on Germany's side in the war, fearing Herman was his father's enemy.

Aunt Kate drives Donal past the Manitowoc almshouse and warns him that careless spending leads people to end up there.

During a canasta break, Donal secretly offers Herta his book of Green Stamps in exchange for her deliberately dropping a key card.

Donal meets Jack Kerouac writing through the night on the westbound bus and receives a personal inscription in the memory book.

Herman assumes the identity of western author Karl May to pressure a Miles City store clerk into accepting Green Stamps as payment.

Rags stays on the famously unrideable horse Buzzard Head through the entire ride and wins the saddle bronc competition.

Herman reveals he entered the United States without authorization and that he and Aunt Kate were never legally married.

Donal fakes having a fish bone lodged in his throat to gain access to Dr. Schneider at Yellowstone and beg money for bus fare.

Sheriff Carl arrives at the Diamond Buckle Ranch and threatens to arrest Harv, Herman, and Donal all at once.

Rags talks down the armed standoff between the Johnson family and the sheriffs; Harv agrees to return to custody voluntarily.

At every major juncture of the story, a hidden truth or consequential choice propels Donal and Herman forward, transforming both the plot and the characters themselves. Beginning with Gram's insistence that Donal surrender the arrowhead and ending with Rags stepping in to prevent bloodshed, the narrative pivots on moments of revelation and bold action. Donal's confrontation with Herman about his wartime past, Kate's unmasked secret about their unmarried status, and Herman's undocumented standing all emerge as confessions that deepen the bond between man and boy. Clever schemes — a secret canasta deal, a borrowed literary identity, a faked medical emergency — repeatedly rescue the pair from seemingly impossible situations. The pool culminates in the tense armed standoff at the ranch, where Rags's calm authority and Harv's selfless offer finally secure safety for Donal, Herman, and the community they have come to love.