Fueled by beer and visions of vast wealth, narrator Mark Tornga and four of his teen-age cronies leave Grand Rapids, Michigan in June 1959 to realize their dream of becoming millionaires. Denied entrance into Canada at several border crossings, they eventually give up one dream and substitute another. With no money, no food and an unreliable vehicle, they struggle to maintain their optimistic plans for a princely future in the Alaskan frontier.