After graduating from high school, and before college, Colin's best and only friend, Hassan Harbish, convinces him to go on a road trip to take his mind off the breakup. Colin goes, hoping to find his "eureka" moment. After reaching a rural Tennessee town called Gutshot, they visit the supposed resting place of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There, they meet Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother Hollis, whose family runs a local textile mill. Hollis allows Colin and Hassan to stay with her family and offers them a summer job interviewing the town's residents and assembling an oral history of Gutshot.