Orson is a schoolboy in Germany whose American mother works at a U.S. Army base in the 1950s. There he becomes a fan of a G.I. stationed nearby, a soldier whose music captivates Orson, as it has so much of America: Elvis Presley. Orson is caught in the PX stealing records of Elvis's music, and the military court mock-seriously sentences him to a month without Elvis music. The publicity catches the young star's attention, and Elvis goes to visit his deprived young fan and then sings for him. That is the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, Elvis's career rockets ever higher, and he becomes the icon of the nation while Orson, in college in America, joins the student protesters and then goes on the road, searching for something to believe in. Each man is an emblem of his time, as social conventions fall and the cultural landscape changes forever.