San Francisco, late 1970s. At 28 Barbary Lane, Anna Madrigal runs a boarding house. She welcomes people who have nowhere else to go: the misfits. This matriarch is known for her unending kindness and her superb marijuana crop. Enter Mary Ann Singleton, a prudish, naïve, young woman who escaped her dull Ohio hometown for San Francisco. She settles in with her other fellow tenants: Michael “Mouse,” a personable young gay man; Brian Hawkins, an incorrigible Don Juan; and Mona Ramsey, a young hippy-ish bisexual. Little does the group know that they will soon form a dear family together. This is the beginning of a humorous, heartfelt saga, between the summer of love and the appearance of AIDS, in the city of sexual freedom.