Twelve-year old Jodie Jackson lives with her father above their boatshed in Sydney Harbour. Her mother died the year before and Jodie is still learning to cope. She worries that her father will meet another woman and disrupt the family.

On Clean Up Australia Day, she sails her boat with her friend Sarah, collecting rubbish from the ocean.

They discover a colourful bottle with a silver charm inside and also rescue a cat swimming in the water. Its owner, Clarissa, lives in a large house next to a beach and they return the cat.

Jodie is beaten in a sailing race by Leo who turns out to be Clarissa's grandson. Leo lives with Clarissa when his mother is away with her work, and Leo tells Jodie that he is afraid of Gerald, Clarissa's son, because he is a bully.

When Jodie returns to Clarissa's house to retrieve her mother's crystal, she and Leo overhear Gerald talking to his friend about chiselling off some of the aboriginal art inside a cave at Clarissa's place and selling it on the black market.

Leo explains that Clarissa won't hear anything negative about Gerald, so Jodie promises to help. She tells her father but he tells her not to get involved in other people's family problems.

Jodie confides in Dad's friend Lina, who contacts the aboriginal cultural centre and they alert Clarissa that someone plans to damage her cave. Jodie bonds with Lina, as they both like nature, and a relationship forms.

At Clarissa's house, Jodie notices that Clarissa's friend Nadia, wears an identical fish charm to the one that Jodie found and Nadia explains that it's a Turkish tradition, where women wear charms and men have tattoos. She and her mother and sister were refugees and when her mother died on the way to Australia, they threw the bottle in the water, with the charm inside. Sadly, they lost contact with their brother when he had to leave Turkey because of political unrest.

When Jodie visits her grandfather in the retirement home, she notices a man with the same fish tattoo, and she tells Nadia that his name is Ivan. Nadia says it is her brother's name too, so Jodie and her dad arrange for Nadia to visit the retirement home and be reunited with her brother. There is a happy celebration there when brother and sister meet after many years.

Clarissa realises that she has been fooled by her son and tells Gerald to leave.

Jodie realises that it would be fun to have Lina as a friend and suggests that Dad invite her for dinner.