When a gay man is invited to what he mistakenly thinks is a pool party benefit to "Save the Polar Bears" he discovers that not all gay men go for sleek, svelte younger men and his social and sex lives improve immensly.

Charlie Bartlett is a retired railroad worker whose dream of crossing the country in a hot air balloon is encouraged by his grandson Morris O'Neill, who decides to go along for the ride despite the misgivings of his widowed mother whose plans to remarry have left him disenchanted.