Arthur, a professor in Porto Alegre, decides to cultivate marijuana to help with his mother's medical treatment; this gets him embroiled in a scandal that costs him his job and compromises his father's reputation. After his mother's death he moves to northern California, ostensibly to pursue a doctorate, but in the end he becomes further involved in the planting and commerce of marijuana. This leads him to more new experiences -- the disappearance of a young Brazilian woman, an attempt to carry on a three-way relationship, the transformation of an old hippie commune into an Airbnb -- as he witnesses the inescapable influence of marijuana on the society, politics and culture of idyllic Mendocino County.