Although considered one of Steinbeck's weaker novels at the time of its original publication, The Wayward Bus was financially more successful than any of his previous works.

He earns his living as a mechanic, and by ferrying passengers between Rebel Corners and San Juan de la Cruz.

The Chicoys have two employees: one is a teenager named Ed Carson, who works as Juan's assistant mechanic and general helper.

Pimples Carson (as he is identified through most of the novel) is constantly helping himself to cake or candy from the lunch counter, telling Alice to deduct it from his wages.

A family of three, on vacation, have been forced to spend the night at Rebel Corners because the bus, named "Sweetheart", needed repair.

Juan, Alice, Norma and Pimples gave up their beds to the travelers and spend the night sitting up in the diner.

Horton makes a very colorful entrance in this novel: he limps into the lunch counter, claiming to have injured his foot in a road accident.

One chapter of the novel is a sympathetic depiction of George, a low-paid Negro who works as a "swamper" at the Greyhound bus depot, cleaning the buses and retrieving lost property.

Louie, a white bus driver, returns the wallet to its owner, promising to split any reward money evenly with George.

As George never interacts with the characters at Rebel Corners, it is interesting that Steinbeck made room for this vignette which is irrelevant to the main narrative.

Norma discovers Alice reading her letter to Clark Gable and after a lifetime of mistreatment she stands up for herself by quietly packing her cardboard suitcase.

Ignoring Alice's defense, Norma collects some money from the register and walks out to board Sweetheart for the next trip to San Juan.

This time, however, the heavy rain that has fallen makes a bridge unsafe, and so he asks the passengers to decide whether to return to Rebel Corners or attempt to reach their destination via an old dirt road.

A film version of The Wayward Bus was released in 1957, with a cast including Jayne Mansfield, Joan Collins, Dan Dailey and Rick Jason.