Alice (Bennendine Woods) and her mother Sue (Madeleine Blackwell) live in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Alice, about eleven years old, is a tough and independent kid. She and her mother have been on their own for some time now, so Alice is not impressed when her unreliable father Jack (John Jarratt) decides to return home. She runs away, teaming up with Mick (Donald Dale), an Aboriginal classmate from school who takes off to join his uncle on the rodeo route. Mick and Alice go in search of the outstation where Mick’s tribal people are living, getting stuck in the desert en route, when the mini moke runs out of petrol. Mick discovers that his knowledge of the bush is not good enough for them to survive on. A search party is out looking for the children and Jack is desperate to find his daughter. It takes a car accident, which nearly costs Jack his life, for Alice to realise that her father really does love her.