A lone wolf drifter is traveling through the desolate North Dakota prairie during a harsh winter in his beat up station wagon towing an equally beat up trailer which probably contains all his worldly possessions. His only companion is a series of self-help cassette tapes, one which describes the path to romantic love. He comes across a deserted broken down pickup truck, and further down the road the almost frozen dead body of its driver, Nathaniel Shoemaker, who he saves from dying. In their travels, the drifter learns directly from Nathan and through very descriptive letters of Nathan's that the drifter reads while Nathan is unconscious that Nathan is going to pick up his pen-pal girlfriend from prison, she who has given him the nickname NoDak. They have been corresponding for three years, during which time they have fallen in love despite not knowing what the other looks like.