Middle-class Karli, alcoholic Jane, unemployed Jackie, and square Ellen are four friends living together and barely scraping by in suburban Sydney. But when Karli’s father offers her a little money and a one-way ticket to New York, she finally sees a way out of her dead-end life—that is, until the money goes missing, kickstarting a final night out on the town that none of them will ever forget.

Two technicians manning a tracking station on the Victorian High Plains pursue opposite ways of coping with isolation. The ageing Cunningham seems to be rejuvenated by and obsessed with the landscape, while the younger Barker withdraws into the interior and technical world of the station.

During a Christmas heatwave, a community activist attempts to stop a redevelopment project that is displacing residents in the Kings Cross section of Sydney.