The stark landscape of the Eastern Sierras, Mono Lake and Owens Dry Lake illustrate the consequences of efforts in the early 20th century to move water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Emphasis is on the results of 100 years of water transfers from this region averaging 5-7 inches of rain per annum, and the abiding sense of loss felt by the Paiute-Shoshone people whose ancestors first settled what is now the Owens Valley. Viewers are introduced to locals with unique insight into the grass roots impacts of decisions taken far, far away. Tribal elders speak about how reverence for the ecosystem has been replaced by market economies. Biologists share frank assessments of the economic consequences of mismanaged water resources. In short, oral histories from keen observers who are part of key transformations illustrate the relationships between people and water in rural and urban communities. They do this by focusing on recent changes wrought by settlement, dams and canals, irrigation pumps and reservoirs. These are just some of the impacts of modernization in California that have transformed the landscape as surely as earthquakes and volcanoes have transformed the region’s geology.