Sixteen-year-old Jamie Schwartz is not the most popular kid at his all-boys' boarding school. Disconnected from students and teachers, he believes he is destined to play Holden Caulfield, the main character of "The Catcher in the Rye," and has adapted the book as a play. After a series of increasingly hostile altercations with the boys at school, Jamie runs away to search for author J.D. Salinger. On the way, he picks up Deedee Gorlin, a quirky girl from town. Their odyssey to find Salinger becomes a journey of sexual awakening, the discovery of love and of the meaning of life.