Why is everyone out to sabotage him? Cliff Rowan has been hired to recover a stolen payroll hidden in the rugged Australian hills and mountains near his boyhood town. But instead of a warm welcome and helping hand, his former sweatheart, his old school friends, and in fact, practically the whole town...want him out! When his friend, Riley, is needlessly killed, Cliff realizes the buried strongbox holds more than cold cash. The mystery unfolds.

Larry (Glenn Mason), Warren (Chris Haywood) and Tony (George Spartels) are three friends living the industrialised western suburbs of Sydney, bored by their lives and the kind of work available to them via their car-wrecking yard boss Boyle (Martin Harris). So instead of working, they strip stolen cars, and then despite girlfriend Wendy's (Margaret Nelson's) objections, Larry decides to join the other two in moving up a notch by helping steal TV sets, cassettes and radios in a warehouse robbery organised by Jacko (Terry Camilleri) and his boss Ferret (Saviour Sammut).

In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.