When a beautiful, college-bound girl, disturbingly preoccupied with the threat of nuclear destruction, falls in love with a handsome ex-con who is rumored to have murdered, many years before, the father of his high school sweetheart, the pair embark on a tempestuous affair and madcap journey across America. Hal Hartley's first feature film, this warm-hearted yet deadpan satire about idealistic young love, capitalist moralizing and the need for passion and creation in everyday life threw the young director into the limelight of the US indie scene at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.