Ask the dust never ceases to inspire its readers. Arturo Bandini, the protagonist, lives a life close to that of Fante himself. He is a penniless but passionate writer living in a hotel room on Bunker Hill and determined to become famous. Fante's prose is charged with energy but unadorned, expressing faith in dreams and love.

The documentary brings to life the Los Angeles of Ask the dust, and also shows a city that has changed. Fante was shocked when he visited Bunker Hill with his son at the beginning of the seventies. The expressions on people's faces upset him and he remarked: 'It seems as though the people have lost their dreams'. A sad flower in the sand unfolds as a road trip through Fante's Los Angeles which unravels the dreams, hopes and deceptions of which the town is made.

Fante's love for this city, where he dreamt of fame and fortune, provides the unifying thread though the documentary. Screenwriter Robert Towne, who is interviewed in the film, knew Fante personally and greatly admired his work, sharing his love for L.A. Towne describes the mood of Fante's work set in the city, epitomised by Ask the dust:

'It's about the kind of stranger in a strange land that everyone felt when they came to California. You know, everybody was from somewhere else. Leaving their roots and leaving places where they felt that they were mired hopelessly by their own history, and seeking to escape that history.

The desert and psychological wasteland that they felt here yawned before them and they felt even more lost, even more hopeless. And, seeking to fulfil their dreams, they came to a place which only pointed out to them that they could never fulfil their dreams.

It's about hope and despair and being very young and feeling both more keenly than you ever had felt them in your life and ever would again.'