Michael O'Malley (Needs), rushes to his priest to tearfully inform him that he has accidentally killed his closest friend, Rachel Mathias (Parry).

The story is told in flashback as Michael recounts their friendship, when he first befriended Rachel by hurrying her away from a group of schoolboys who were verbally bullying her on the playground.

Michael sneaks into the synagogue with Rachel the next Saturday and is somewhat puzzled and intimidated by the ceremony, but he stays and seems to like it as time goes on, especially after the kindly rabbi shows him a passage in the Torah that speaks of God's love shielding him from all fear.

Having concluded it is acceptable to God that they remain friends, Michael and Rachel decide to take an inflatable raft on the River Thames for their next adventure, a trip to Africa.

Due to the stronger current and the riverbank's dense underbrush in which Rachel has become entangled, Michael has great difficulty reaching her, but at last pulls her out of the river; however, she is limp and unresponsive.

Michael, immensely relieved, rushes home happy that his little friend is still alive, and the priest and the rabbi --- who earlier in the film have been established as being good friends despite their differing religions (just as the Catholic boy Michael and Jewish girl Rachel had become close), and acknowledging that their respective religions actually hold more in common than they may have realized before --- speak warmly to each other before walking away in different directions.