Humboldt County

Peter Hadley (Strong) is an overachieving medical student at UCLA. He is given failing grades on his final exam by his professor, who also happens to be his father (Bogdanovich). Unable to graduate, he becomes bitter and disillusioned. He then meets up with the actress who played the part of his patient in his final exam, the free-spirited part-time jazz singer Bogart (Balk). The two of them go back to her apartment after a night at a jazz club and have casual sex. Afterwards she gets up to go for a drive and asks Peter if he'd like to come, to which he agrees. The two of them drive north through the night and Peter eventually dozes off. When he wakes up, he finds that Bogart has driven all the way to Humboldt County. It is here that he meets her family. Jack (Dourif) and Rosie (Conroy) took her in when her family abandoned her, and they became her surrogate parents. He also meets Max (Messina), Jack and Rosie's son and Charity (Davenport), Max's daughter.