In the spring of 1969, Troy Jacobson and two friends, Jesse and Coleman, start a small commune in Denton, Texas. They bring in friends, lovers, and musicians, and it all works until the hot summer day Coleman hits on a girl Jesse brings home from a gig. R.E., Coleman's girlfriend, tries to help him balance the demons that drive him to make all the wrong decisions. Then an expensive car pulls up outside one morning. The men in suits who get out set in motion events that take them back into previously secret family histories: Utopian communes of the 1850s, the early days of the Beats, and the lives of the ultra-rich in Fort Worth. Conflicts both inside and outside the commune eventually force them away from home, onto the road, and into the unknown.