On the Road summary

In Denver, Sal boards up with another writer friend, Roland Major. But for the first few days, the elusive Dean is nowhere to be found. Finally, Sal receives a call from their mutual friend Carlo Marx. Carlo and Dean are both in Denver, but Dean has been busy juggling his new affair with a girl called Camille while simultaneously rekindling his relationship with Marylou. In between, the friends are experimenting with opiates and going to drag races.

Finally, Sal, Dean and Carlo reunite for a night about town. Dean even picks up a girl for Sal, but they end up staying out so late Roland Major won't let him back into the house. Their partying life continues for a while, Sal often finding himself in the role of passive observer to Dean's ravenous appetite for life and his endless ramblings.

Sal's journey back home is arduous – from Pittsburgh onwards, he has to hitchhike, relying on the kindness of strangers to buy him food. He arrives back in New York haggard and exhausted, where he learns that Dean has moved to San Francisco with his new girl Camille.

Over the next year, Sal finds his way back into regular life. He returns to school on the GI Bill and meets a girl named Lucille, whom he hopes to marry. But predictably, Dean pops back into Sal's life just as it seems stabilized. When Sal is celebrating Christmas 1948 with relatives in Virginia, Dean shows up at the doorstep, wired and unshaven. He has just left Camille and his new baby daughter in San Francisco. Marylou and Ed Dunkel are with him, a friend who also just ditched his wife.

In the spring of 1949, Sal returns to Denver. But all of his friends have left the city and his temporary job at a fruit market brings him no joy. After spending the night with a rich older woman, he's hustled up money to hit the road again.

Being on the move immediately makes Sal feel more at ease. The road has become a way of life to him. And so this time it's Sal who ends up knocking at Dean's house in San Francisco in the middle of the night, where he's back living with Camille. As usual, Dean answers the door in the nude. He tells Sal he's been working as a mechanic to take care of his wife and baby daughter. But he's been going crazy over Marylou, who's now married to a used-car dealer. As Dean is telling this, Camille is sobbing upstairs.

It's spring again. Sal has finally finished his novel and sold it to a publisher. What better use to put the money to than to go out West again?

This time, Dean is the one staying behind in New York. He's back working as a parking lot attendant to pay child support to Camille – who's had a second baby in the meantime – as well as provide for his new wife Inez and their child in New York. When Dean shows Sal pictures of his wife and kid, they almost appear like a regular All-American family.