Lucky Flynn hasn't spoken to his family in years. He's broke, distant and damaged. He's also a gifted pianist, whose talent for music is matched only by his talent for self-destruction. When he learns that his mother has only days left to live, Lucky sets off in a hire car to drive the 4,000km from Sydney to Perth to say goodbye, taking with him his only cherished possession in the world: a battered and scarred upright piano.

But what should have been a straightforward drive across the outback soon becomes a test of Lucky's emotional fitness, when he quite literally runs into Meg, a hilarious, tough-as-nails teenager, who we soon discover has plenty of scars and secrets of her own.