In 1914, a counterculture grows in the German woods -- artists and anarchists fleeing cities, money, and the Internet of their time: telephones, telegraph, electricity. There’s a better life to be had, with flowing hair, naked farming, Expressionist art and freedom.

As the Great War looms closer these bohemians take off for California, “the America of America,” where rumor says you can get away with living your own life. The Lanzes, a family of four from Berlin, follow them and help build Sunland, a short-lived paradise in San Bernardino County.

The Sunlanders’ Sunday musicales draw crowds from Los Angeles, and for a moment in time the desert blooms with premonitions of Woodstock and Burning Man. In a while the violence of the era closes in, and Sunland proves too tender to last. But a funny thing happens: as years go by, the dream that was dreamed there ripples out into the world, and hasn’t vanished yet.