Daniel, a seventeen year-old-boy, lives with his identical twin brother Nathan, who lost his hearing in an explosives accident as a child. Growing up in Dunt, Australia, they dream of rebuilding the farm that their late father worked on. Daniel cares for his brother but teases him mercilessly; Nathan responds by giving the finger. Their bedroom is decorated with the Wall of Legends, which includes images of the surfer Blake Oakfield, the rapper S.mouse, and Gran.
Gran, the boys' grandmother, works at a juvenile detention facility in Sydney. She's both beloved and feared by the inmates, and has a habit of overstepping the bounds of political correctness-like when she divides the pick-up soccer teams according to "light skins" and "dark skins." She lives in a house on the facility with her co-worker Penny and 29 guinea pigs.
Daniel and his friends spend their day doing "mainies"-driving up and down Dunt's Main Street in his mom's Nissan Pulsar. Later, the family receives news that Nathan's hearing is only getting worse, and he won't be able to get a cochlear implant. While the family takes in the news, Daniel laughs at the word "cochlear."