The culture shock was difficult for Eugster's two older sisters, but for the 9-year-old Eugster it was especially confusing and frightening. She recounts the difficult transition from a traditional family life to one in a communal setting. Eventually, Carla was able to buy a large farmhouse with acres of land around it, and this became the commune. An array of colorful characters drifted into the commune, and Eugster writes sensitively about being a child in the midst of all this. She accurately depicts communal living in all its complexity, describing weekly consensus meetings, days of silence, and quarterly sweat-hut rituals. This is essentially the dramatic story of a young girl given complete freedom in a communal setting, which at many times felt to her like abandonment.
Notes from Nethers is a riveting look at a time and place long gone. It is an important piece of American cultural history, and the history of efforts to create a utopian society, underscoring the fact that no matter how ideally a societal structure is conceived, its enactment cannot escape the imperfections of humans who embody it.