In June of 1933, sixteen-year-old Lou Bank was living in Los Angeles with an aunt and uncle after his family had moved back to Philadelphia so he could complete high school. One day he was summoned by relatives and given the money needed to purchase a one-way ticket to board a bus destined for Philadelphia where his father lay gravely ill. With all his worldly possessions stuffed into a tattered suitcase and six dollars in his pocket, Lou hoped the six-day trip would leave enough time to reach his father while he was still alive. The Bus Ride is a tale based on a true story that traverses the length and breadth of the country and while it is primarily Lou's story and that of his family, it is also an account of a populace rich in its diversity, inhabiting a multifarious milieu in America during the early twentieth century.