Jerry Bell was raised in Marion, Indiana – a small, blue-collar Midwestern town. He worked long hours at a steel factory. He had a loyal wife, healthy children, the respect of his co-workers, and a boat.  

He spent countless days floating and fishing the hours away on a river in Northern Indiana together with his son Micah.  The pair had earned their boat – a rubber canoe – with the wrappings of 20,000 cigarettes.

Then something happened to Jerry. Maybe one small disappointment at a time. He began drinking more and working less. His wife left and took his children with her. His friends and co-workers failed to realize that Jerry was drowning on dry land.

One day, at age 43, Jerry got in his rubber canoe and started paddling down the Mississinewa River.  He paddled down to the Wabash to the Ohio then down the Mississippi toward the sea.,

Along the way, Jerry became a modern-day Huck Finn. On the river he found peace and calm, beauty and grace, earthly independence and escape from civilization.

"Each day is a great day on the river," Jerry said. "Faith provided for me things all the way down the river. Anytime I needed anything, I received it."

Even after his rubber canoe snagged a tree branch and began to leak, Jerry kept going for 100 more miles. He finally made it to Memphis, where he decided to camp for the winter and look for odd jobs to provide him with money for a new canoe.

But in Memphis, Jerry's life catches up to him and his journey to the sea takes a tragic turn.  A phone call from home sends him reeling. Jerry loses his bearings, then his way again. He leaves the river for the street.

Jerry begins to eat out of trash bins, collecting empty cans to make enough to buy his next bottle, frittering away the days with other homeless drunks on the park benches of Memphis.

"Anytime Jerry gets away from the river is when he drowns," a friend observes.

Jerry hangs on, though. His community of homeless men - characters such as Captain, Jimmy and Mouthwash Mike - provide companionship to keep him afloat. His spirit and sense of humor keep him moving forward.

With the help of a friend from home, Jerry finds a job that gives him an opportunity to use his gifts as an artisan and to reclaim the self-worth and dignity he'd surrendered to his demons.

Will Jerry return to the river? Is he searching for the peace and beauty in God's creation or is he running from responsibility? Is he a dreamer or just a bum?

Is Jerry, as he claims, just a nobody, or is there a little bit of Jerry in every one of us?

Nobody takes us on a journey into the soul of a man searching for home as he flees it.