In the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.

At the bottom of the depression, Tom's mother has been out of work for months when Ed's father loses his job. Not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomores decide to hop the freights and look for work. Wherever they go, there are many other kids just like them, so Tom, Ed and now Sally stick together. They camp in places like 'Sewer City' as long as they can until the local authorities run them off. They travel all over the mid west and when they get to New York, Ed thinks that they may finally find work.—Tony Fontana <[email protected]>

Of typical small town middle class backgrounds, best friends Eddie Smith and Tommy Gordon, sophomores in high school, are both negatively affected by the economic hardships of the Great Depression. For months, Tommy has been hiding that his single mother has only been working less than sporadically. Eddie, however, just learns that his middle age father has been laid off from what appeared to be his stable cement factory job, it difficult for him to find alternate work at his age and at this time. Not to be a burden to their respective families, the boys, not telling their families beforehand, decide to ride the rails together east to Chicago to look for work. While they meet several others in the same predicament attempting the same thing, they all having to evade the railway police who will place them into custody if caught, they bond specifically with Sally, one of the few girls in the bunch who, unannounced, is wanting to live with her Aunt Carrie in Chicago, she who can better afford to take care of her than her recently widowed father already having to take care of Sally's several siblings. When things in Chicago fall through, the three decide to stick together eventually aiming for New York City. Through all the hardships they face, one severe issue that befalls specifically Tommy, they may not have a chance to get out of what appears to be their downward spiral until they have a forum to talk about their problems, society's problems.—Huggo