Exploring the lives and struggles of a varied group of people in a small, rural California town, Greendale focuses in on the Green family. From Grandpa sitting on the front porch commenting on the state of the world, to his struggling artist son Earl Green, to Sun Green, Earl's vibrant, free-spirited daughter, daily existence in Greendale seems idealistically perfect and trouble-free, at first. This uneventful lifestyle is proven to be more intricate than first glaces would indicate, when Cousin Jed shoots and kills a police officer, sparking a chain of events that change the lives of those around him in both simple and profound ways.