Set in 1969, "Coming Through the Rye" is the poignant and funny story of 16 yr. old Jamie Schwartz (Alex Wolff) who has landed at an all-boys boarding school for all the wrong reasons. Ostracized by nearly everyone, he clings to the unshakable belief that he will someday play Holden Caulfield — the main character in "The Catcher in the Rye" — on Broadway and in the movies.
Jamie adapts the novel into a play to put on at school, but, after a series of increasingly hostile incidents with students, he runs away with a quirky townie, Deedee (Stefania Owen), to find the book's author JD Salinger (Chris Cooper). On their odyssey to find the reclusive writer Jamie slowly opens up to Deedee and discovers secrets about himself that will change his life forever.