Jimmy Livingston is happy enough and has all the same experiences of other boys and girls growing up… except he’s lived his whole life in a hermetically sealed bubble. However, when Jimmy realizes that he’s in love with Chloe, the girl next door, he has no choice but to build a mobile “bubble suit” and venture out of his bedroom. He sets off across the country to Niagara Falls, to stop Chloe’s wedding–which is only days away–in time to confess his love to her. As Jimmy sees the world for the first time, he encounters a motley crew of people. Along the way, he crosses paths with freaks, bikers, rock stars, and a cult–all the while, racing against the clock and his parents who are determined to bring Jimmy back to the safety of his “bubble room.”

Set during the Gulf War, the episodic tale follows Anthony Swofford (a.k.a. “Swoff”), a third-generation enlistee, from his sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, where he’s sporting a sniper’s rifle and a hundred-pound ruck sack on his back, while moving through Middle East deserts with no cover from the intolerable heat. As well, he advances with no protection from the Iraqi soldiers–and there’s always a potential enemy sighting, just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves on humor and camaraderie as they tread the blazing desert fields in a country they don’t understand, against an enemy they can’t see, for a cause they don’t fully fathom.