For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. He thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a Free Tibet letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard-there must be a cosmic connection.
Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Gere a series of letters-Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's desire to assemble a family of his own.
A struggling priest, a Girlbrarian, her feline-loving, foul-mouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere all join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the Cat Parliament and find his biological father . . . and discover so much more.