Psych-Out

Straight-laced innocent Jenny Davis, a deaf runaway, arrives in San Francisco in the Haight-Ashbury District to find her artist brother Steve Davis. She has a last-known address and a recent postcard with a cryptic, thus yet-undeciphered note from him as the starting points to find him while she tries to elude the police who are searching for her to send her home. She meets hippies Stoney, Ben, and Elwood, who squat together in a communal house and are in a band together. The three friends end up helping Jenny with her mission; they make space for her in her house, and she makes a special connection with Stoney. As an innocent she might be unaware of Stoney's free-love lifestyle of making no commitment to any one woman; she might also not be prepared for the many aspects of counter-culture, from the hatred that some have for hippies, to those who use violence to show that hatred, to the effects of the vast array of psychedelic drugs making the rounds, to the choice to be unemployed which often means doing without that for which the mainstream pays money. This last point places a wedge between Stoney and ex-band member Dave, who is also attracted to Jenny and feels that Stoney is selling out in the band pursuing paying gigs and other things in the music business that require a contract.