Before returning to the East Coast, Neil spends the night with his close friends, Thad and Ginny, at their home in Eugene, Oregon. After dinner, during a departure ritual for Neil, the two men eat magical mushrooms that they harvested months ago for this very occasion. When the shrooms begin to take effect, they join Ginny in the front room, turn on a reel to reel tape recorder and proceed to document their journey. "It's the performance in the moment," insists Thad. "I mean we're performing the reality that we're feeling." And so, in the Quiet Gardens, they do just that.