In 1969, the Holden Caulfield-obsessed Jamie Schwartz runs away from boarding school to find the reclusive author J.D. Salinger. Inspired by actual events, Jamie's search is a journey into the meaning of friendship, love and loss.

Coming Through the Rye, set in 1969, is a touching coming of age story of sensitive, 16 year old Jamie Schwartz, who is not the most popular kid at his all boys' boarding school. Disconnected from students and teachers, he believes he is destined to play Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, and has adapted the book as a play. After a series of increasingly hostile altercations with the boys at school, Jamie runs away to search for J.D. Salinger. On his way he picks up Deedee Gorlin, a quirky townie. Their odyssey to find Salinger becomes a journey of sexual awakening, the discovery of love and of the meaning of one's life.

Inspired by the filmmaker's own true story, the film - set in 1969 - follows a 16 yr old boy who is desperate to be a worldly adolescent. After stumbling through disastrous relationships at boarding school and, accompanied by a local town girl, he travels the mountains of New Hampshire in search of J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.