Staff Sergeant Jonny McTavish, U.S. Army Special Forces, has been recomended for the Medal of Honor for actions on the highly classified SOG mission in Laos. The U.S. military has a policy of removing from combat any soldier once recommended.
It is 1970. Attitudes back in the U.S. are hateful towards returning soldiers. Needing some compression time, Jonny choses to spend his accrued leave in Australia, where soldiers are still welcomed That welcome includes copious amounts of alcohol, some very friendly local girs, and he wallows in it.
But there's still a hole that cannot be filled by anything other than being back with his fellow soldiers. He feels like he has abandoned them, though it's no fault of his own. Now he has to figure out what to do with the rest of his life.
Music. Before enlisting Jonny was the lead songer and songwriter for Jonny Em and the Maniacs, a wildly successful rock band. He throws himself into the music, but something is missing. His voice, once able to hit the high notes, has roughened from exposuire to war chemicals and a hell of a lot of shouting. He realizes that what he needs is a female voice to sing counterpoint.
Enter Livvy Belfort, a blonde-haired spitfire with the voice of an angel. Orphaned at 14, she and her older sister had fled to the outback to avoid being stuffed in an orphanage. Now 18, she sings for her supper in a bar in Darwin. Jonny sweet-talks her sister into letting Livvy go with hm back to Sydney.
There they make beautiful music. It's not rock-n-roll, it's not ballads. It's something that doesn't fit into any category. It's new, it's beautiful, and it leads them into something inevitable. Love. Despite their efforts to avoid it.
They cut an album, give a wildly successful concert, make plans for their future together.