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Intro
After serving his sentence at Salina, a juvenile work camp, 18-year-old Emmett Watson is driven back to his home in Nebraska. There, he reunites with his 8-year-old brother Billy, who has been staying with the Watsons’ neighbor Sally Ransom since the death of the boys’ father Charlie. Charlie died in deep debt, so Emmett decides to sell the family farm. Emmett was sent to Salina for accidentally killing another local boy in a fight, and he wants to move out of Nebraska to leave behind his guilt and make a fresh start with Billy. Billy convinces Emmett to move to California, where Emmett can establish a home renovation business and Billy can search for Billy and Emmett’s estranged mother. Emmett agrees to follow the course Billy plotted along the Lincoln Highway.
Their plan hits an obstacle, though, when Duchess and Woolly reveal themselves. They are Emmett’s friends from Salina, and they escaped by hiding in the warden’s car when he drove Emmett home. Duchess, a consummate liar and the son of a con man, tries to persuade Emmett to join him and Woolly on a quest to steal Woolly’s trust fund, which Woolly’s family has deemed him temperamentally unfit to inherit. When Emmett refuses, Duchess steals Emmett’s car to bring himself and Woolly to Woolly’s family home in New York.
Emmett and Billy pursue Duchess by stowing away on a train, where they meet Ulysses, a Black veteran who has been riding the rails since his wife left him and took their son. Ulysses saves Billy from a violent thief named Pastor John, and Billy––who loves stories about heroes––tells Ulysses about the ancient Greek hero Ulysses. The similarities between Ulysses’s story and that of the Greek hero restore Ulysses’s hope in reuniting with his family, and he helps Emmett and Billy make their way to New York.
Meanwhile, Duchess has embarked on a mission to “settle his debts” on the way to Woolly’s family home. He brutally attacks Ackerly, the former warden of Salina, and sets out in search of his neglectful father Harrison Hewett, who got Duchess sent to Salina after framing Duchess for his own crimes. He also seeks out Townhouse, a Black ex-convict from Salina who suffered racist abuse in part due to Duchess’s actions. Duchess requests Townhouse beat him to settle their debt, and Townhouse hesitantly obliges. When Duchess leaves, he gives Townhouse’s friend the keys to Emmett’s car. While Duchess is settling his debts, Woolly reunites with his sister Sarah, the only member of his family he is close with. Woolly resents authority and conformity, and he sees Sarah’s upper-middle-class life as emblematic of both.
When Emmett, Billy, and Ulysses reach New York, Townhouse gives Emmett his car keys and directs him to Duchess. Emmett finds Duchess at a brothel, where Duchess drugs him and leaves him with a prostitute. While Emmett is incapacitated, Duchess explores the city with Woolly and Billy. They meet Professor Abacus Abernathe, the author of Billy’s favorite collection of heroic stories. Abernathe encourages Billy to write down his own story. Billy tells him about Ulysses, and Abernathe asks to meet him, believing that this Ulysses might be living an “echo” of the life of the Greek hero. Abernathe is inspired by this notion, and he and Ulysses leave to ride the rails together.
Emmett returns to his friends, and Sally joins the group, having tracked Emmett down after he failed to call her at their agreed-upon time. Duchess and Woolly sneak off together to Woolly’s family’s summer house, where his trust fund money is kept. Woolly is happy to be back in the one place he ever felt at home, but when Duchess asks him for the code to the house’s safe, Woolly doesn’t know the answer. While Duchess tries to break into the safe, Woolly reminisces about his childhood in the house. He returns to his childhood bedroom and takes his own life.
Townhouse helps Emmett disguise his car, which Duchess parked outside Ackerly’s house when he assaulted him. Emmett intends to leave for California with Billy and Sally, who wants to leave her father’s home and start an independent life for herself. However, recalling Duchess’s attack on Ackerly makes Emmett realize that Duchess likely intends to settle his “unfinished business” with Harrison Hewett, so he follows Duchess and Woolly to the summer house to stop Duchess’s revenge mission. Billy slips away from Sally, who is watching him, and stows away in Emmett’s car.
At the summer house, Emmett demands that Duchess return to Salina. Duchess refuses, and the confrontation escalates when Billy reveals himself. Duchess takes Billy hostage at gunpoint, but Billy has deduced that Duchess can’t read and thus doesn’t know that the guns in the house are unloaded. Billy conveys this to Emmett, who quickly overpowers Duchess and knocks him unconscious.
Billy listened to the stories Woolly told about his family, so he correctly guesses that the safe’s combination corresponds to the date Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, which Woolly and his relatives all had to memorize. Woolly’s hastily-written last will and testament leaves his trust fund money to Billy, Emmett, and Duchess, so the brothers take their share and leave a third of the money with Duchess on a rowboat with no oars. They push the rowboat onto the lake and leave Duchess, who can’t swim, to decide whether he will prioritize his own safety or the money. Duchess tries to grab the money, but he upends the boat and drowns while Emmett drives away with Billy.
