A boy in Minnesota builds a toy boat and, after writing his name and address on the craft, sends the small vessel on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, the boat's travels are aided by a Chippewa youth who rescues it from a tangle of reeds, through farmland tended by the descendants of Scandinavians and into the Deep South where a young African-American shows it to a white boy, a former playmate, rekindling their old friendship through a common interest.