Professor Olga Pavlic is lecturing her students at a college, on the origin of man and the English language. When she receives an anonymous love letter, she is faced with the challenge of her life.

A communal house left in trust many years ago to provide art students support in the way of free housing, ART HOUSE has accumulated its share of legends, lore, art, art junk and a reputation for hard partying. When a university dean and an influential descendant of the original benefactor decide to turn the place into housing for varsity golf, the residents only chance of blocking the move is to prove their value and vitality as an artistic community. The burden is on art student Nora Ohr (Greta Gerwig), who is energetic, compassionate, but by no means perfect. Can the residents of ART HOUSE get their act together and make a name for themselves as artists before they're kicked out?

Life takes a strange turn when a group of outsiders come to the small town of Cholame, the famed site of James Dean's fatal car crash. Cholame's only business, a diner owned by Max (John Mahoney), is overrun by this glamorous group while the diner's short order cook (Ian Gomez) and waitress (Virginia Madsen) get caught up into this new, exciting world. Unknown to the rest, a magazine reporter (Linda Emond) arrives in town to uncover a dark secret that Max has kept hidden for over forty years

An amiable and benign hobo named Briefcase makes his living by claiming to be the Tooth Fairy and asking passersby to fund his business. Most folks enjoy Briefcase's playful ruse, but he soon meets his match in the form of a pragmatic young girl named Lisbeth. When Briefcase learns that Lisbeth doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy, he takes it upon himself to show her a world full of magic.