该片改编自Michael Zadoorian的同名小说，讲述了一对患重病的老夫妻开着老旧的房车从马塞诸塞州出发前往海明威的故居，在旅途中回顾人生的故事。 约翰是一位文学教师和作家，海明威的死忠，尽管阿兹海默症已经让他的记忆越来越差，甚至会忘记妻子和儿女的名字，却依旧可以随口说出海明威的所有作品，《老人和海》更是他的钟爱。因为妻子艾拉患重病需要住院， 约翰就只能进入养老院，携手走过一辈子的二人面临永远分开的未来。于是，他们有了一个疯狂的决定，决心驾驶名叫“leisure seeker 求闲者”的房车，从马塞诸塞州一路南行，回顾70年代曾和孩子们一起度假的旅程，目的地是西锁岛key west 的海明威故居。

Gwen grows up with her romantic mother constantly telling her the story of her courtship and marriage to her father. Nick grows up with an alcoholic father who can't hold a job and whose family, as a result, is forced to move all the time. The two are shaped by this - Gwen a romantic and Nick withdrawn, unsure of himself - as they watch the hugely popular sixties sitcom, "One Big Happy Family." Years later, it is the star of that show, now a child actor gone bad with a history of detox and people always saying, "I thought she was dead," Francesca Lanfield, who connects the two of them, after years of near-misses and almost encounters. Gwen is hired to ghost-write Francesca's autobiography, while Nick, becoming her lover, is the architect who is to design a building on Francesca's property. When Gwen decides to crusade to save Francesca's building, she writes letters to the newspaper which catches Nick's attention - and wins his heart.