This film is a coming of age picture for the four main characters, and how their lives can change over one holiday. The film is set in 1960s Australia. Four orphan boys from a Roman Catholic orphanage in the outback of Australia - Maps, Misty, Spark and Spit - were all born in the month of December, and for their birthday, they are sent on a holiday to the beach to stay with Mr. and Mrs. McAnsh. While there, they meet Fearless, a man who claims to be the risk motorbike rider in the nearby carnival, and his wife, Teresa. Misty, Spark and Spit instantly become closer to Teresa, but Maps, the eldest of the four, is still reluctant to talk to her. He instead finds more fun in spending time with a teenage girl named Lucy, who had come to the beach to stay with her uncle. He often goes up to a place with strange rocks, and meets her there.