The year is 1984, and on the rural East Coast of New Zealand Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' is changing kids' lives. ''Boy'' is a dreamer who lives with his brother Rocky, a tribe of deserted cousins and his Nan. While Boy idolizes Michael Jackson his other hero is his father, Alamein, who is a distant memory to him, but is the subject of Boy's dreams and fantasies. Boy imagines his father as a deep sea diver, a war hero and a close relative of Michael Jackson (he can even dance like him), but in reality he's ''in the can for robbery''. When Alamein returns home after seven years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered find his own potential and learn to get along without the hero he had been hoping for.