After a man from New York meets a young woman from a Mexican family on a bus to L.A., the two travel across mid-20th century Southern California searching for work, food, and shelter while falling in love. As the travelers struggle to survive on their few remaining dollars, the man wonders how long this adventure can last.

California has seceded from America, and Molly and her daughter Phoebe run a bookstore that straddles the troubled border of the two countries. When outright war breaks out, Molly and Phoebe must protect their customers - American and Californian alike - but the customers are not all willing to get along.

In California, a young woman reflects on her relationship to her father while working on a novel. Through reading her father’s novel, she understands their relationship through his eyes.

A man, uprooting from his life in San Fransisco, takes on a rider on his long drive towards Denver, but finds they don't get along.

After a troubled teenager living with his grandparents in southern California gets busted for drugs, he spends the summer with his mother and his new stepfather, where he slowly reforms his behavior.

When the California Santa Ana winds blow down from the desert and through the windows of a lonely young woman’s house, she is imbued with the inspiration to embrace an unexpected encounter.

While on the run from her crack-cooking boyfriend, a woman feels at odds with her place in life—literally and figuratively.

A father reflects on his parental failures and his growing age as he drives through California on a rainy night.

An aimless, twenty-two-year-old Californian man questions everything—from his job to his ability to take care of a potted plant—as a heat wave sweeps his town. Just when he's about to spiral, a life-changing act of heroism gives him unexpected clarity.

A young adolescent gang leader steals a flashlight, which helps him find a new way to see the gang activity in his city.