A true story of Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer with a seventh-grade education who in 1962 was hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), one of the world's finest jazz pianists, on a concert tour from New York City through the pre-civil rights-era Deep South. The men relied on the Negro Motorist Green Book to guide them to the few motels, restaurants and gas stations they could use below the Mason-Dixon Line.