In town, Jake Snyder (brother of Jimmy Snyder) accosts Emmett, trying to goad him into a fight and then punching Emmett a few times, though Emmett doesn't fight back. She's upset to learn from Duchess that Emmett plans on leaving.

The next morning, Sally Ransom, their neighbor and a former romantic interest of Emmett's drops by. They want Emmett to go with them to help Woolly get the cash, and in exchange they'll split the money evenly among the three of them. There's also a wall safe at his great-grandfather's house in upstate New York that contains roughly the same amount of money as his trust fund, $150,000. However, his brother-in-law Dennis had him declared 'unfit'. Woolly is the beneficiary of a trust fund that should have come under his control now that he's 18. They explain that they stowed away in Warden Williams's trunk and have a proposition for Emmett. Meanwhile, Woolly is a troubled rich kid. Duchess spent a few years in an orphanage, being raised by nuns, after his father abandoned him there for two years when he was 8. They're soon interrupted by the presence of Duchess and Woolly, two guys Emmett knows from juvie. After some research, he agrees to the plan. While Emmett thinks his brother's plan of tracking down their mother in California is crazy, he knows that California (due to its high population growth) is a good place for him to pursue his goal of achieving financial stability by renovating and selling houses. Billy hopes she might still be living there now. Billy has recently found some old postcards indicating their mother (who left them 8 years ago) once took the journey there down the Lincoln Highway. When Emmett tells his younger brother, Billy (8), that they will need to move, Billy suggests they move to San Francisco. In present day, Emmett learns his father's farm is being foreclosed upon by the bank. It caused Jimmy to fall and hit his head on a cinder block, resulting in his death. Jimmy was a troublemaker who had goaded Emmett into punching him. (The book chapters count down from 10 to 1.)Ĭhapters 10 and 9 open with Emmett Watson (18) returning home to Morgen, Nebraska (dropped off by Warden Williams) after having spent a year in juvenile detention for killing Jimmy Snyder. The book ends with Billy, Emmett and Sally heading off to San Francisco, while Duchess drowns trying to save his money from flying away (rather than floating back to safety). Ultimately, Billy is able to guess the safe combination, and Emmett puts Duchess (who can't swim) in a leaky boat on the lake with his share of the money. Woolly kills himself (which Emmett thinks was his plan all along since he was unhappy and misunderstood by his family), and Emmett and Duchess have a confrontation that turns violent. When they finally all reach Woolly's grandfather's lakeside house (where the safe with the money is), it turns out Woolly doesn't even know the combination to the safe. Meanwhile, Duchess is also trying to settle some debts against along the way, and he attacks their former warden and other people. They are aided by Sally, a family friend, and Ulysses, a black man they meet on the train. When Emmett declines, Duchess 'borrows' Emmett's car, forcing Emmet and Billy to stowaway on a train to New York to find Duchess and Woolly and reclaim it. However, two guys (Duchess and Woolly) have snuck out from juvie and have followed Emmett home, hoping to convince him to help with a caper in New York to take back Woolly's $150K trust fund (which Woolly has been deemed 'unfit' to access). Billy hopes to find their mother (who left them 8 years ago) there. The two-paragraph version: Emmett (18) has just gotten out of juvie and is now planning to drive down the Lincoln Highway to move to San Francisco with his younger brother Billy (8).

Night book summary chapter 6