The film is the story of a friendship between a Welsh-born actor who becomes a famous National Theatre and Shakespearean performer, played by Des Barrett, and Homer, his mentor from childhood, played by Brinley Jenkins, a pigeon lover and teacher who secretly wishes he had the courage to leave the mining valleys. Homer has his passion for nature and culture. His secrets are open. What he discovers is that Barrett's character has his own secrets, and this drives the plot of the film from Bedlynog to the South Bank at Waterloo station on the Thames.