Ben, aged 12,has been given a boomerang and sets out with his father and grandfather to try it out in the local park. Unfortunately, the boomerang becomes lodged in the branches of a very high tree. No amount of stone throwing by Ben's father, Bob, can dislodge the boomerang from the tree. The image of the boomerang lost in the tree's branches becomes central to the lives of all three. For all three are struggling separately with feelings of loss: Of a boomerang, of a job, of a wife and mother and of life itself. Their emotions and knowledge are concealed from each other for reasons of pride, cowardliness and love'.