Set in California's Owens River Valley in 1940, the Passer-By is the story of a train-hopping migrant laborer working on the local aqueduct, who wanders into a local roadside diner. He catches a glimpse of the melancholy lives of its proprietors- Maria, a Mexican immigrant woman who pines for her former life in Mexico; Jeb, her abusive husband; and his adopted orphan nephew Grant who longs for a real family. The escape fantasies of each are projected onto the Passer-By, not unnoticed by Jeb. Threatened, he frames the laborer with the help of the local sheriff, but not before the Passer-By left what his desperate family needs the most: hope.