Dexter, age 11, who has AIDS, and his next door neighbor Erik, a little older and much bigger, become best friends. Erik also becomes closer to Dexter's mother than to his own, who is neglectful and bigoted and violently forbids their friendship upon learning of it. When they read that a doctor in distant New Orleans claims to have found a cure for AIDS, the boys leave home on their own, planning to float down the Mississippi river and find him.