8-year old Eddie's parents are killed when the plane his father is piloting crashes into a mountain near their home. Eddie's uncle Frank, who is also a pilot, is left to care for the boy. Soon, however, Frank takes a long-term job abroad and Eddie is left to be raised by ranch manager Ernesto and his school-teacher wife Margaret.
When Frank returns ten years later and fulfills his brother's wish that Eddie be taught to fly, Eddie struggles to find his bearings as a young man with mixed emotions toward his uncle, his love for the couple who raised him, the loss of his birth parents, and his blossoming first love with Francesca.