Two American pilots are asked to pilot two Cessna planes for a delivery flight on Christmas eve on a San Francisco-Honolulu-Pago Pago-Norfolk Island-Sydney route. After one of the pilots crashes on takeoff from Pago Pago, the other has to fly on its own to Norfolk. But his navigational instruments malfunction and he is diverted from his route, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His only hope is a commercial flight, an Air New Zealand plane, half-full of passengers and a veteran captain determined to find the lost pilot, whatever it takes.