In each of the four novellas, an artist moves to San Francisco to experience its storied bohemian life. A poet turned cab driver seeks the elusive muse that will save his soul and marriage. A young painter is seduced by an idealistic friend to start an underground journal only to find himself in a risky romantic triangle. An eccentric writer, stricken with hypergraphia, transcribes his daily existence into a living novel, blurring the boundaries of reality and fiction. And a surrealist travel writer is lured into the afterhours world of a local pub and a crime he can't resist. San Francisco isn't what any of them expected, but in the end these artists get closer to the truth about themselves, for better or worse.