The Golden State tells the story of Gertrude Hopper who, in her dilapidated Southern California mansion, rules over her adult children and illegal servants with an iron fist. With a fortune in her bra and a maternal instinct warped by the profit motive, Gertrude plans to marry off her son and farm out her daughter's womb to a wealthy widow. Her plans run aground, however, as her children make a final, desperate bid for love and independence in this twenty-first century reinvention of Molière's classic comedy The Miser.