When an anxious germaphobe learns he has a rare, fatal disease, he's forced to travel the country with his estranged half-brother in order to find a DNA match and save his life.

SYNOPSIS:

SPENCER “SPENCE” HAYS (40s) is an audiobook narrator and germaphobe in Miami. He walks in on his girlfriend and another man in their bed. But he’s more upset about crumbs from their pizza than the cheating. It’s over.

The next day at work, he passes out in the booth, mid-recording. Turns out Spence has a rare genetic disease and it’s potentially curable with a ground-breaking process that only one local doctor can perform.

After confirming that neither Spence’s mother, CLAIRE (70s), nor his half-brother, BRETT (30s), have the matching gene, he must find a match on his father’s side. The catch: Spence doesn’t know one blood relative on his long-deceased father’s side of the family. His father and paternal grandparents were all only children.

Given just four weeks until he succumbs to the disease, Spence must locate and convince relative strangers to submit their saliva for genetic testing and potentially save his life. And due to his worsening condition, he’s unable to drive himself. Brett enthusiastically volunteers. Spence is not as pleased.

With a family tree built by the over-enthusiastic Brett, they hit the road with saliva collection kits provided by Blasband, hoping to connect with strangers who would be Spence’s third cousins, each with a small chance of being a match.

With each successive cousin Spence meets, he learns a little bit more about his father's side of the family, and grows to appreciate what having a family means. Along the way, he meets a black cousin, an Asian cousin, a rabbi cousin - who performs a bar mitzvah on him - and a drug addict cousin whose life he saves.

But when his time has nearly run out and he's given up, Brett insists on collecting one last DNA sample from an uncooperative, and rather large, cousin, PAUL (30s). When Paul decks Brett, Spence finally stands up for his brother and gets the sample. But it could be too late. Spence passes out in the car.

As Brett rushes him to the hospital, Spence's experiences rush through his mind and we see the full extent to which he connected with his new family.

FADE TO BLACK

Spence wakes up. He's alive! Reconnected to an estranged brother and a large family of loving cousins.