It's 1977. Ike and Lucy, Senator Charlie and Margaret Marder's kids, are grown up--and in trouble. US Marine Ike has gone somewhat off the grid, working on Evel Knievel's pit crew in Montana, when--after a bar fight--he has to flee a neo-Nazi gang and seek refuge in the woods with a group of Vietnam veterans. Lucy, a reporter, has become the star of the brand new Washington DC tabloid, the Sentinel, and is breaking all sorts of stories about a serial killer and falling in with the Lyons, the wealthy family that owns the newspaper, British immigrants with quite a different view of journalism than Lucy's heroes Woodward and Bernstein. As their lives spiral out of control, Ike goes on the road with Evel Knievel, the Vietnam veterans, and other societal outcasts, first heading to Graceland to mourn Elvis Presley, then going to confront politicians--for grievances real and perceived--on an island in Georgia. Lucy, too, is at that retreat with both her parents and the Lyon family, attendees at this retreat where the future of the post-Nixon Republican party will be decided. The confrontation turns violent and both Ike and Lucy have to make decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives.