To Tansy and her new husband Guy, both longtime New Yorkers, moving to the coastal California community of Bellinas feels like a dream come true. They're drawn to the small town for more than just its year-round perfect weather. In Bellinas, the pace of life is slower. The aesthetics are flawless. Beautiful women in flowing dresses weave, make pottery and nurse infants while the men surf and dive for abalone. To Tansy, who has always longed for a child, it feels like the perfect place to start a family.

This carefree lifestyle is sustained in part by the town's wealthy benefactor, a former tech CEO who now goes by Father M. Years ago, he bought up nearly all of the town, renting some homes to his equally glamorous friends, leaving others empty and acting as a patron to the few original residents remaining. He and his wife, Guy's cousin Mia, are the founders of the Bohemian Club, a...