'I'm wearing a beautiful pink dress, and I'm in a big pink room with billowing curtains...and I'm dancing to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark...and my handsome partner leans over and whispers....'

Yes, '80s child Ellie really thought life was going to be like Pretty in Pink, St Elmo's Fire and all those other movies - where everyone was astoundingly glamorous, popular and successful, had huge apartments and lived happily ever after. But now that she and her gang are 30, she has to admit that things haven't quite turned out that way. When did horrible flats, difficult relationships and meaningless jobs take over? And, more importantly, what happened to the coolest, wisest, most inspirational Brat Packer of them all? Where is Andrew McCarthy now? Did life fulfil its promise for him? Is he happy on Channel 5? Surely he, of all people, can tell Ellie what to do about her thirty-angst.

Determined to get her idol to unravel some of life's great mysteries, Ellie sets out, unwillingly accompanied by her best friend, Julia, on a quest across the USA, from LA to New York, to find him. It's an unlikely epic, by turns hilarious, romantic and downright uncomfortable. But, helped by a cast of thousands, of whom Frosty the Giant Pig is probably the least improbable, they do find some answers, although not the ones they expected.