What is long way from Chicago about?

The Long Way from Chicago tells the story of a young woman named Lena, who sets out on a 3500 mile adventure, hitchhiking from her small Michigan town to Chicago and points far beyond in time to find an identity of her own, to connect with her estranged, enigmatic father; and, ultimately, to become part of an alternative family on the fringes of America's counter-culture of the 1970s.

Throughout her extraordinary adventures as both an amateur thief and an accomplished jazz saxophone player, the one constant, her North Star in this strange landscape, remains the idea of home - what it once meant versus what it might come to mean again if only she finds her heart's true desire on the long way from Chicago.