When the long awaited holiday of cement truck driver Danny (Rhys Ifans) goes south thanks to Trudy (Justine Clarke), his scheming girlfriend, he escapes his suburban prison and blasts into the skies in a garden chair tied with helium balloons. A mighty thunderstorm blows him clean off the map and spits him out far away over the lush green town of Clarence, where he rockets into the world of Glenda (Miranda Otto), the town's only parking cop.

While the media back home run riot with the story of his disappearance, Danny gets to reinvent himself in Clarence and in the adventure discovers a true soul mate in Glenda.

Fate catches up with him eventually: Danny's true indentity is revealed and Trudy, now a "60 Minutes" celebrity, comes to Clarence to claim Danny and drag him back to Sydney. Danny however, is a changed man; he's discovered what it means to live and found a new self-worth. Saying farewell to Trudy, Danny makes a dynamic re-entry to Clarence, determined to with Glenda back again and embrace his newfound zest for life.