Buddy was almost broke in New York when he was offered a chance to earn some money with a tour called "The Winter Dance Party". He decided to take the offer but soon found that the the tour was badly organised, with crazy zig-zags back and forth to venues across a frozen mid-west. His "New Crickets" were Waylon Jennings (bass), Carl Bunch (drums) and Tommy Allsup, a guitarist that Buddy admired greatly. The tour was going badly with unreliable cold buses that often broke down and with such long distances between venues nobody could take care of the everyday things, like washing shirts and other personal items. The Crickets were now reduced to two with the hospitalisation of Carl Bunch with frostbite to his toes, so at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Ohio, Buddy, Tommy and Waylon decided to hire a light plane to take them from Mason City Airport to Fargo, North Dakota. The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens got to hear about this and they set about trying to take the places of Tommy and Waylon on the flight. They succeeded and the three headliners of the tour set out after the show to take what would be their final journey ....