Young reporter Jack McClure is desperate for a ticket off the news desk, and it doesn't take long before opportunity comes knocking.

On the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, the task of writing an article about an influential figure from San Francisco's colorfully dissentient past falls to Jack.

Soon, he discovers that the subject of his article, a beatnik, hippie, and one-time movie star, Dean Simmons is anything but an easy interview. For Jack, getting to know the "real" Dean becomes an inviting doorway to the electrifying world of activism and the recognition he has always sought.

Learning to Haight is a believable story of San Francisco and its apparent effect on the young men and women who go there to find themselves.

The city does something to people – what will it do to Jack?