Eight year old Eddie is left parentless when the plane his father is piloting crashes into a mountain near their home. Frank, Eddie's uncle, who is also a pilot, is left with the responsiblity of caring for the boy. Soon, however, Frank leaves for a job overseas and leaves Eddie in the care of ranch manager Ernesto and his school-teacher wife Margaret. When Frank returns ten years later, it is to fulfill 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.