Scripted by Justin Monjo, the plot follows Rush as Michael Kingley, a successful retired businessman who goes to Adelaide as the company he founded decides whether or not to lease vast farming lands in the Pilbara to a mining company. When his grand-daughter Maddy (Davies), who worries about the environmental impact of the deal, rebels against her father, he tells her the story of his youth when he lived with his father Hideaway Tom (Courtney) in a small shack between Ninety Mile Beach and the Coorong. Little is the young Michael, aka Storm Boy, who befriends Fingerbone Bill (Jamieson), an Aboriginal man, and rescues three pelican chicks whose mother was killed by hunters.