Based on the classic Michael Noonan novel, "December Boys" is a story of four orphan teenagers growing up behind the closed doors of a catholic convent in outback Australia. For years the boys watch younger kids leave with their newly adopted parents and have come to the realization their time may never come.

The Reverend Mother gives the boys something to look forward to by sending them to visit the seaside for the first time. Their long awaited vacation doesn't turn out the way they planned until they meet Teresa & Fearless, a young autocratic couple that would make the perfect parents.

As men, they remember back to the 60's when, as boys, they spent their first tumultuous summer by the sea as they sabotaged each others efforts to be the chosen one only to discover the real meaning behind what it is to be a family, i.e. one of the "December Boys."