Her mother, Arlene (Kyra Rudhe), a Hopi hippie of sorts, takes care of the household and home-schools Bo. Her father, Charley (Kirby Neumann-Rea), a Korean War veteran, was a strong, hard-working man who could fix anything they found and take her everywhere with him. The resourceful family lives about as close to the land as you can get.

But Bo dreams of going somewhere else — anywhere else — where she can live in a “normal” house and be a Girl Scout — with her own uniform, not a used one.

During this her 11th year, everything changes for the Grodens. As adult Bo (Ayla Nelson) recounts in the opening scene, it was “the summer my dad got depressed.”

The depression hangs like a cloud over the whole family. Arlene has run out of ways to try and bring Charley out of his extended depression and is beginning to despair. Young Bo enjoys fishing and entertains herself as best she can with her imagination and clever letter-writing skills.

But no one is more distressed and frustrated than Charley himself, who clearly wants to will himself better, but instead turns into “a damn cryin’ machine.” Going to the doctor is out of the question.

Charley’s best friend and fellow war veteran, George (Brad Dezurick), a constant presence in the Groden household, is also at a loss, and finally agrees to Arlene’s urgent pleas to visit a psychiatrist and try to feign illness to get hold of a prescription, for Charley to use.

One day an IRS agent, William Gibbs (Reuben Betts), appears at their house — after a life-altering encounter in their garden — and before he can perform his audit, has a reaction to bee stings he received as he stared in awe at the garden scene.

As the family nurses him to health, each is touched in some way by the experience, including Gibbs.

The mood is set by the opening music, Native American flute, and the play proceeds at an easy pace. The scenes are interwoven with adult Bo’s memories of that fateful summer.

“Off the Map” was originally produced in Great Barrington, Mass., in 1994. It was adapted for film by Ackermann, at the request of director Campbell Scott, and released in 2002.