Professional motorcycle racer Bud Clay heads from New Hampshire to California to race again. Along the way he meets various needy women who provide him with the cure to his own loneliness, but only a certain woman from his past will truly satisfy him.

[first lines]
[Bud walks up to a young woman, working behind the counter in a gas station store]
Bud Clay: Hi.
Violet: Hello... Did you just come from the race track?
Bud Clay: Mmhm.
Violet: Did you win?
Bud Clay: No.
Violet: Oh.
Bud Clay: How much is this?
Violet: $2... Will you be racing again?
Bud Clay: Going to California. I've got to be there by Friday.
Violet: California? I always wanted to go to California.
Bud Clay: Really?
Violet: Yes.
Bud Clay: It's nice there.
Violet: Is it?
Bud Clay: Mmhm.
Violet: I thought it would be.
Bud Clay: Is your name Violet?
Violet: Yes, it is.
Bud Clay: Who made the necklace?
Violet: I made it.
Bud Clay: You think you'd want to come with me?
Violet: I don't even know you.
Bud Clay: Please?... Please?... Please come with me.
Daisy: I'm not going to be okay, Bud.
Bud Clay: [points to a bunny rabbit] How old is this bunny?
Employee: Around one, two months.
Bud Clay: What's the longest a bunny can live for?
Employee: 'Bout five or six years.
Bud Clay: Five or six years...
Employee: Yeah.
Bud Clay: That's the most they can live?
Employee: Yup.
Bud Clay: [sobbing] Why do you have to drink and take drugs?
[last lines]
Bud Clay: No.