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 traveling college students who would go on to become the best-known of the "Beat" writers. From their early college years to becoming expatriates in Mexico, William and his wife Joan are haunted by the murder of a friend in college by another one of their closest friends. Their obsessive love eventually pushes them to the limits and once again murder is part of their legacy.