Courtney Love stars as Joan Vollmer, the second wife of writer William S. Burroughs (Keifer Sutherland), in this picturesque look at death and travel among a group of travelling college students who would go on to become the best-known of the "Beat" writers. Leading up to her shooting death in a bizarre William Tell-type stunt attempted by her husband, Joan spends time in Mexico with her two children, ponders her future with her philandering husband, and is visited by Allen Ginsburg (Ron Livingston), Jack Kerouac (Daniel Martinez), and UPI journalist Lucien Carr (Norman Reedus).