In a desire to find the ultimate wave, a surfer travels to the Kalahari Desert. His car breaks down in an isolated area where he is befriended by a farmer and his wife, who becomes attracted to the stranger.

The reality of life slams into the proverbial wall when a group of necessitous best friends and ex-lovers are reunited at a milestone reunion, igniting an already passionate and combustible past.

Des works at a boring job, and his girlfriend Julie is pressuring him to get married by claiming to be pregnant, so that she will not have to work. Laurie is living a life of quiet desperation with her husband Colin, an aspiring writer who refuses to look for a job. Des meets Laurie while visiting a work-mate who is dying of leukemia. While they go for a drive, Laurie invites Des to a rent party at their house. After this Vancouver counter-culture party, Colin finds Des and Laurie in bed together.