In Australia, four teenagers in a Sydney theater are astounded to hear the news that a nuclear war has broken out in Eastern Europe. They try to figure out the best way they can survive the coming conflagration.

After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.