Sal and Terry are sick of Los Angeles after only a few days there. Neither can find work in the city, and they feel lost among the tourists and oddballs who fill the streets. According to Sal, urban life is a jungle. Sal and Terry have decided to take a trip to New York. Terry goes to see her sister while Sal stands outside. Terry rushes out of the house as Sal overhears the women shouting. They leave their motel and continue on their journey.

Sal suggests they hitchhike to New York to cut costs, but no one will take them. They get to Bakersfield and look for work picking grapes, but they have little luck. They catch a ride to Terry's hometown of Sabinal and visit with her brother Ricky. They spend the day being driven around by Ricky and his pal Ponzo, and by the end of it everyone is intoxicated. Terry picks up her son Johnny from home, and drives the three of them to Fresno. Sal finds it funny that his new buddies have such a laid-back outlook, telling him that they will handle all that has to be done "manana."

Sal finds work as a cotton picker in the area around Sabinal, and he and Terry pitch a tent there to live for a while. Sal finds the task challenging but rewarding. "I really did believe I had found my calling," he says. Yet he can only pick enough cotton to make $1.50 a day, which will not even cover a day's worth of food. Sal quickly understands that he cannot support Terry and her child in such a miserable environment. He abandons Terry and Johnny at Terry's parent's home and travels on his own, hitchhiking back to Los Angeles to purchase a bus ticket to Pittsburgh, the farthest he can afford to go with the money he has left. He prepares salami sandwiches for his journey eastward and sleeps on the sidewalk.

Sal encounters a young woman while riding the bus to Pittsburgh. Most of the trip is spent with them sitting close together and necking. Sal intends to hitchhike to New York City once he gets off the bus in Pittsburgh. He reaches Harrisburg, but from there on out, no one will help him out by giving him a ride.

Sal encounters The Ghost, a little, raving hobo who claims he is on his way to Canada, on the highway outside Harrisburg. Sal follows him about for a little while. Finally, he is able to hitch a ride back to Harrisburg, where he spends the night on a bench outside of the train station.

Sal wakes up the following morning ravenous. He is out of money and can not afford meals, so he hitches a ride with a plumbing supply salesman. Even though he expresses his hunger to the salesman, the latter is an advocate of "controlled starvation," or the view that fasting has positive health effects. He reveals to Sal that he, too, has gone without food for three days. Sal does not believe his bad fortune. But after waiting for hours, the salesperson finally offers Sal some bread and butter sandwiches.

The salesman takes Sal all the way to New York and drops him off in Times Square. Sal manages to get back to his house in Paterson, New Jersey by begging for a quarter from a stranger. Sal's aunt provides for him, and he devours everything she serves. Sal finds out that he just missed seeing Dean, who was living with his aunt. Back in San Francisco, Dean returned only two days after he departed. Sadly, Sal has come to the conclusion that they have most likely already passed each other on the road.