Ditched on the side of the road, two friends shelter for the night in a barn. When they wake, one comes face to face with his destiny --- an antique letterpress, the Vandercook No. 4. Woody and Leroi have been friends their whole lives. But as Leroi falls in with the collective that cooks every Sunday in the park, learning about traveler symbols and how to slice a cucumber, Woody starts to snort the pills he’s been selling. He makes his art: beautiful letterpress signs for protests, and business cards commissioned by a woman he knows as Stasia but whom others know to be the leader of a white nationalist movement. Stasia bought the barn with the Vandercook in it; she says Woody can use it anytime. What does she want in return?

Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. But with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy --- her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss --- and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end. So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her --- they’ll make a life that sustains them (if barely) for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.