Danny Morgan (Rhys Ifans) works as a concrete truck driver and construction worker who lives in Sydney with his girlfriend but is unhappy with his life.

Danny yearns for the simple life while girlfriend Trudy (Justine Clarke) fantasizes about bright lights and fast times.

As he floats over idyllically beautiful rural landscapes, totally foreign to the concrete structures of his discontent, he appears on the verge of some enlightenment.

After he is beaten up in a rugged ride through a thunderstorm, fireworks from a small town's macadamia festival bursts most of his balloons and catches him on fire.

His ideas that were considered hair-brained in the big city seem fresh in the small town of Clarence, and "the professor" is hired to become the manager of an aspiring politician's campaign.

All the while, the big city media cannot get enough coverage of Danny's disappearance and the search for him, constantly broadcasting interviews of his friends, family and co-workers.

He wakes reveling in his new soul-mate, gets dressed in a haze of happiness and steps outside onto Glenda's porch to greet the dawn of his perfect new life.

Just then, Trudy and Upman drop down in a news helicopter and land in the street in front of Glenda's yard, stopping Danny dead in his tracks.

Meanwhile, unhappily plugged back into his old job and with Trudy trying to capitalize on his fame, the deep changes that Clarence made in Danny make city life all the more unbearable.

Deeply miserable and stuck in a traffic jam with his cement truck, Danny abruptly ditches it and his job to walk home, He then confronts Trudy telling her that they are over and uses the connections his media storm has forged to get on a military plane to return to Clarence and win Glenda back.

As the movie ends, Danny and Glenda, in their bathrobes, symbolically float upward in deck chairs as they talk about their future plans.