A classic story of identity, love and Australias modern heritage. Cello States comes from the town of Corduroy and is definitely from the wrong side of the tracks. He escapes his life of drugs and gangs in the world of books, language and words, but when his father, a small time drug dealer clashes with a rival gang, he is forced to leave home. This drives Cello on a crime spree that eventually takes him to Melbourne, where he meets and falls in love with Oya Seyesene, a girl far removed from his world of violence and poverty. Half Sri Lankan, beautiful Oya is a child of privilege who despite having everything in life yearns for something else. Encouraged by her parents to find herself, Oya starts working at the Foundry, an avant-garde theatre where Cello has been working for the past few years. But it is a relationship fraught with tension and in danger of being overshadowed by the secret that Cello was part of a terrible crime that involved her family.

Against the backdrop of the Indian Ocean, in the early hours of the morning, are two men who walk on the beach sharing their life stories. Roy, a middle manager from a manufacturing plant, is desperate for answers as he struggles to lead an initiative that threatens the jobs of the managers of the factory. Accompanying him is Ed, a retired medical doctor turned corporate leader, who has managed to save a chain of companies from bankruptcy. Using the human body as a leadership model, Ed narrates stories from his own past to elaborate on the different stages involved in the development of human maturity within organizations. Encapsulated in a moving story of ambition, success, family and loss, is a series of anecdotes that talk about the purpose and fulfillment at work and life as a whole.