Normal Phantom is an old Black Aboriginal man known far and wide as the best fisherman. Norm lives with his family on the outskirts of Desperance, a white settler town in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in northern Queensland, Australia. Norm and his wife Angel Day have seven children. The chaotic, quarrelsome family live in a swampy area on top of the nest of a serpent spirit, which is the ancestral creation spirit for Aboriginal people in the region. Angel eventually leaves Norm to be with Mozzie Fishman, the leader of a spiritual convoy.
The Phantoms live on the Westside of Desperance, while Joseph Midnight and his family set up a camp on the Eastside of town. The Phantoms and the Midnights have warred with each other for centuries, while the white residents of Desperance continue to treat both Aboriginal settlements with disrespect and violence. Norm disowns his son, Will Phantom, when Will goes to live on the Eastside with Hope, a member of Joseph Midnight's clan.
One day, a disheveled white man walks out of the sea and onto the shores of Desperance, after a storm destroys all of his memories. Residents of the town decide to call him Elias Smith and they view him as their savior. Eventually residents choose Elias to serve as their town guard. When a series of destructive fires break out in Desperance, residents blame Elias and tell him he must leave town. Norm is heartbroken to see Elias go, since the two have become close friends and fishing partners.
Meanwhile, an international mining company named Gurfurrit begins operations in Desperance, with the support of the town's racist, wheeling-and-dealing mayor, Stan Bruiser. Aboriginal residents oppose the mine, though many see little option but to accept jobs there. The most outspoken opponents of the mine are Mozzie Fishman and Will Phantom. Mozzie leads a convoy of zealots who travel the country in an effort to follow traditional Aboriginal spirituality and ways of life. Will sabotages one of the mine's pipelines, bringing operations to a halt. When national police start an operation to search for Will, Will joins Mozzie's convoy and leaves town.
On the way back to Desperance, Mozzie's convoy stops at a lagoon. The men are surprised to spot Elias's dead body sitting in his boat on the lagoon. The rest of the convoy moves on but Will secretly stays. He goes into the water and unties the rope holding Elias down. A helicopter shoots at Will and he realizes the mining company has set a trap for him. As a terrible storm breaks out, Will manages to escape to the hillside and to bring Elias's body with him. Will makes his way back to Desperance and leaves Elias's body with Norm. Norm takes Elias's body and buries him in a spiritual ceremony far out at sea.
Will is determined to find Hope and their young son, Bala. Will goes to see Joseph, who explains that he sent Hope and Bala away because the police were bothering the family. Hope and Bala escaped with Elias Smith when Elias left town, and they went to a faraway island, the ancient homeland of Joseph's people. Will takes one of Joseph's boats and arrives at the island. But the mining company catches him, knocks him out and ties him up. He wakes up on a helicopter and sees the mine workers throw Hope into the sea. His captors bring Will to a helicopter pad at the mine and tie him up. A couple of Mozzie's men are surveilling the area and see Will there. Members of Mozzie's convoy start a fire at one of the hangars at the mine and Will's captors must leave to extinguish it. Mozzie's men free Will and they all escape from the area and hide out in the hillsides. They watch as the fire continues to grow and provokes a chain of explosions that totally destroy the mine. Mozzie's convoy leaves the region to head south as a huge storm approaches Desperance. Will goes back to Desperance to search for Hope and Bala.
Still out at sea, Norm gets caught in a terrible storm and the currents bring his boat to the island where he finds Bala. When Norm discovers Bala is Will and Hope's son, he is angry. But eventually Norm rescues Bala from a tidal surge and the grandfather and grandson form a close relationship. Hope shows up at the island and has no memory of falling from the helicopter or surviving at sea for five days. Norm and Hope argue constantly as they try to repair Norm's boat in order to leave the island.
A huge storm approaches and massive floods force residents of Desperance to evacuate. Will takes refuge at the town hotel, but the tide eventually washes the hotel away and Will is taken out to sea. At sea Will climbs onto a large floating island of garbage and this becomes his new home. Seeds take root and edible plants flourish on the island. Will builds a boat and plans to find Hope and Bala, but he is discouraged when his boat is not seaworthy. His elusive dreams about Hope and Bala torture him. Meanwhile, Hope is tortured by her dreams that Will is stranded on a garbage island, trying to reach them but unable to.
Norm, Hope and Bala row for weeks at sea and return to Desperance to find the town is destroyed. Norm lifts Bala on his shoulders and starts walking to his old land on Westside. Before long, he realizes Hope has disappeared, as she takes his boat back to sea and heads towards Will's garbage island, helped along by the groper fish. Norm believes that Hope will find Will and bring him home, and he resolves to make a new home with Bala in the same place where his family used to live, right on top of the serpent spirit's nest.
