Joyride is a road movie about four people (and a baby) set in Ontario and eastern Canada. Despite its dramatic core — a wife fleeing her abusive husband — the tone is for the most part comic, offbeat and playful.

The story opens with JOY FARREL, 29, leaving Toronto and hitting the road with her 11-month old daughter, JOY JR., in her husband's prized possession, a '54 Cadillac. She is escaping her volatile husband and heading for her mother's home in Halifax. She's determined to show her daughter the sea. Along the way, she meets WARREN GAIN, 26, a chronically itinerant chef, hitching his way to a new job in New York, via Montreal.

When Joy's husband CHESTER, 28, discovers his family and car are missing, he takes off after them in his pick-up. He meets JOIE MOREAU, 25, (pronounced "Joy") a tough, free spirit hitching her way back to Newfoundland to make peace with her parents on the first anniversary of her brother's suicide. Midsummer Night's Dream stuff starts happening - mixed-up couples, hidden identities, charged coincidences. Warren doesn't know Joy's story, and Joie is in the dark about Chester's past. None of the main characters come clean to each other about their real stories, until events gradually unmask them.

Joy's Cadillac breaks down, leading to a night with Warren in a motel near Kingston. Warren finds himself bonding with the baby. He insists on cooking dinner in a cramped kitchenette. Across town at a restaurant, Joie gets a taste of Chester's temper as they wrestle over a wishbone. He makes nice, and later they make love...until Joie retreats. Seems Chester reminds her too much of her cremated brother. Chester is not a happy camper. Another outburst, another apology the next morning. Warren has his own difficult night to navigate. He rocks Joy, Jr. to sleep, soothing her with a thinly-veiled tale about a prince, an abandoned princess, and the baby he left behind. Joy overhears the story. The next morning, Warren inadvertently makes a discovery of his own: fresh welts on Joy's back, compliments of Chester. Montreal. Joy drops Warren off to catch the train to New York, giving him her address in Halifax. It's an emotional farewell. Each knows a secret from each other's past, and says as much. To Joy, it's clear that Warren is in love with Joy Jr. He skirts the issue. She drives on.

Halifax. Chester and Joie go their separate ways, though not before Joie leaves Chester with some food for thought to chew on about the values a parent hands down to a child.

New York? Warren never makes it. He heads to Halifax to find Joy and Joy Jr. Her mother's home is east of Halifax. Broke, he hitchhikes and along the way he runs into Joie again. When Joie and Warren reach Joy's mother's place, they find Chester and Joy squaring off. The tension is flammable. Joie tries to mediate. Chester lunges at Joy. Warren tackles Chester. Chester is about to attack Joy but is stopped in his tracks by Joie, who's holding a knife. Outwitted and outnumbered, Chester flees, out of the house and back to Toronto.

The sea, at last. It's the balm Joy has wanted for her daughter. It's where Warren plans to stay. Before wading into a new relationship, Joy and Warren take one more trip, with Joy, Jr. They drive Joie to Newfoundland in the battered Cadillac, fuelled by laughter and hope.