16 year old NINA has ditched ballet lessons to work weekends in a strip club, seeking financial independence from her rich father who has recently remarried a 22-year-old model. ALEX, a 30 year old architect, sees her act when dragged to the strip club one night by a builder mate. Alex is appointed to redesign the theater facilities at Nina's school and soon their paths cross again. Despite his misgivings about their age gap, a romance starts to blossom. In many ways Nina drives things on, and Alex is smitten. But when both their worlds start to come unstuck over the relationship the strength of their love is put to the test.

Tom is a British chef in a Bondi restaurant who seems to have decided there are no longer any rules he needs to obey. Whatever Tom is up to, his actions seem to be tolerated by those around him. As Tom descends into darkness, fragments of a different story begin to emerge. All the women in his world are trying in their own, very different ways to help put him back together.

At the heart of this true story is Damien Oliver, a young jockey who loses his only brother in a tragic racing accident, hauntingly reflecting of the way their father died 27 years earlier. After suffering through a series of discouraging defeats, Damien teams with Irish trainer Dermot Weld, and triumphs at the 2002 Melbourne Cup in one of the most thrilling finales in sporting history.