In late 1944, under mysterious circumstances, ambitious writer and sophomore at Columbia University Jack Kerouac lost a manuscript of a novel titled "The Haunted Life". Seventy years after its writing, this manuscript is being published for the first time (and in Greek).

Set in the peaceful town of Galloway in New England, a fictionalized version of Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, "The Haunted Life" is the coming-of-age story of Peter Martin, a college track star determined to spend one last carefree summer. Instead, he is constantly haunted by what awaits him: a society still reeling from the Great Depression and the impending entry of the US into World War II. When his two best friends - characters based on two childhood friends of Kerouac, Sebastian Sampas and Billy Chandler, both recently killed in the war - begin to plan their escape from Galloway, Peter realizes he must soon make his own choices for the future. As he examines the conflicting influences of his youth, from his working-class, populist father to his restless idealist friends, Peter strives to determine what can lead him to an intellectually authentic life.