Wild Seed 1965 PARENTE

Believing she has discovered the whereabouts of her biological father, James Collinge, whom she has never met and who she had previously believed had died in the war before she was born,17-year-old Daphne Collinge sneaks out of her adoptive parents' New York home with only $43 and a suitcase of her belongings, to head out to Los Angeles to be with her biological father. All she knew about Collinge was what was written in love letters between her biological parents, her mother who passed when she was a child. As such, she has concocted a fantasy story about why he never contacted her, especially as those letters indicate that he knew her mother was pregnant. After a rocky start to her trip which she had planned to do solely by hitchhiking, Daphne meets a penniless young drifter who calls himself Fargo, ostensibly all alone in the world--initially by circumstance, now by choice. Although she doesn't fully trust him especially after he breaks what little trust she willingly gave him, Daphne decides to take him up on his offer to accompany her to Los Angeles--on his way to San Diego--because he has a different, "safer" means than thumbing which he tells her opens her up to being caught by the police, who would just send a minor straight home. Their time together on the proverbial "road" has its ups and downs, especially in how they relate to each other, which ultimately affects what Daphne sees as her mission of this trip.