The Great Far Away commences in the 1970 s, as a group of young people, seeking to go beyond the restrictions and conformism of their parent s generation, coalesce in a small town in Northern California and form a community, determined to help one another live out utopian dreams. Frank s narrator, looking back from the present day, describes the evolution of their lives as they age, the changes that occur among the individuals and in the town itself: changes none of them could have predicted when they first arrived, brought about by inevitable (and inevitably human) practicalities and conflicts as the years passed, children were born, and open-ended life styles that affected relationships and marriages.