A film that captures the magic of the Beat generation and their continuing legacy expands into a larger discussion of what it meant to be a poet in America when the ignoble spirit of McCarthyism was loose in the land. From Venice to North Beach to Greenwich Village, the Beats found answers in Buddhism, friendship, and the power of their words. Using an emotional tone which is exactly right and a lovely style of filmic poetry, the beats are immortalized here with heart and soul.