Jamie, a footloose and self-absorbed young American, is traveling in Chile and is keen to experience the mysteries of a local Hallucinogenic plant — the mescaline-bearing Echinopsis pachanoi. In a moment of indiscretion, he invites another young American, the eccentric "Crystal Fairy", to join him and his three Chilean companions, brothers who — with varying degrees of enthusiasm — also seek the magical herb. To the dismay of all four men, the New Age-addled young woman — now dubbed "Crystal Hairy" — joins them on their road trip, and soon everyone's patience is stretched thin. The desired plant is acquired through a hasty theft and the heartfelt experiences that they all undergo under its psychotropic influence on a remote desert beach bring them closer together. By the end they are all more sympathetic and tolerant of their individual personality differences.