Ashin Asilomar is a retired dentist, living in the same California mid-coastal town where he was raised, practiced, married, and widowed. A troubled young family moves in next door, and Ashin befriends their 12-year-old son, Mateo Funk. Together, Ashin and Mateo watch as more and more outsiders move in, calling the town perfect just as it is… And then working so very hard to transform Paris into the place they recently escaped. It begins with fences, signs, and dog leashes, but soon progresses to hostility, absurdity, and then madness.

Paris, California tells a tale familiar to many people who have watched their community transformed—by those who move in and then work to change the very characteristics that attracted them there in the first place—and what happens when that phenomenon goes completely off the rails.