When the famous gorilla researcher Richard L. Garner boards the train from Lynchburg to Knoxville in 1921, all he wants is a few hours of peace while he prepared the final speech of his fundraising tour. But a lovely young woman who's trying to leave her mistakes behind intrudes on him, followed soon by the woman's stalker (a man who knows her secrets), the man's odd-but-artistic young son, and by a teenaged 'traveling traveler' who suffers from a rare disease. By the time they get to Knoxville, this makeshift 'family' will be so entangled only a deadly emotional explosion can separate them