Kate Ketchum is inflicted with the disease of desire. Impassioned with fantasies of a singing career and traveling the world, she abandons her generations-old family tradition working at a declining shoe factory in Massachusetts. Enter Michael James. Back from two tours in Vietnam with haunts and secrets he's loath to share. Wanderlust captures the college campus life where Kate and Michael's worlds collide in 1968 against the backdrop of the Vietnam war—passionate times of change, hippies, and history. Disappointments, distractions, and devastation, U-turns, misfortunes, and the fast lane lure each of the characters to their unexpected destinations—from an institution for disabled youth to a concert in Paris, to the bustling streets of Bangkok. Will their differing passions and history heal them or tear them apart?