The play begins with a group of 12 year old boys looking at pictures of naked women in the school yard. We soon learn that these boys don't like Daniel, also nicknamed "Snood" because he is different in a way they don't understand. Daniel is best friends with Richard, a young boy who does his best to understand Daniel. We learn that Daniel is building wings for himself in order to fly. He even practices his flying during class when he takes the pass in order to leave the classroom to do so.
Eventually Daniel asks Richard to meet him at Hatch's Cliff, he is going to do his first flight from there. Daniel asks Richard to tell Alice, a young girl that Daniel likes, to come as well. Alice comes, but she's told her best friend Penny and Penny has told Alice's mother, and eventually all the boys and girls from Daniel's class are there waiting to see Snood fly. Before he does though, Alice and Richard share a kiss. Daniel arrives and then jumps off of Hatch's Cliff and the children see him fly and they can't believe it.
Daniel flies off and no one can find him. He has gone into Alice's room where the pair are all alone. He reveals to her that he can actually fly without wings. He asks her to promise to fly with him one day, and he leaves.
Twenty years later, Daniel is returning home for the first time since he left. He has been awarded many medals for his flights, even some lifetime achievement awards. He's returned and Alice and Richard are married with a son who they named Daniel and Snood is his godfather.
Snood reveals that he's come home in order to fly away with Alice as she once promised years before. However, she won't go with him as she has a life with her family. Daniel then tries to fly off of Hatch's Cliff but he's lost his ability to do so. Richard and the rest of the people from their class carry Daniel into Alice's room where he says he feels like he is floating above himself, flying once more. Daniel dies, and as he does the window open and wind chimes sound.
