In Sithalapakkam, Anbu is a lively and mischievous eight-year-old, and his days are shaped by his parents, Gokul and Glory. [Gokul] runs a startup delivering organic products, while [Glory] sells sarees at expos and is often away from home. When [Glory] heads to Coimbatore for an expo, [Gokul] takes [Anbu] on a drive to break the monotony. But their outing is disrupted by a bike loan EMI collector who begins chasing them. Anbu grows hungry and demands a burger, and Google Maps guides them to a burger joint 25 kilometers away. As the debt collector closes in, they decide to keep moving. Anbu joyfully rides his waveboard along the highway service road, while [Gokul] keeps pace.
To escape the collector, [Gokul] heads about 100 kilometers further to his parents’ place, hoping for some financial relief. There, he asks his father to sell their ancestral land to help him out, but his father remains silent. At the Coimbatore expo, Glory unexpectedly runs into her sister, who hasn’t spoken to her in a decade due to an inter-religion marriage to [Gokul]. The reunion leaves Glory stressed, and she finds release by joining a flash mob dance. Meanwhile, [Anbu] leaves his grandparents’ house on his waveboard, unwilling to stay the night as planned. When Glory calls, [Anbu] doesn’t reveal his reasons, and [Gokul] quietly reopens the road trip. As rain falls, they shelter in a ruined stone pavilion. Both [Gokul] and Glory lie to one another about their whereabouts to spare worry about expenses. At night, [Anbu] sneaks out to climb a nearby hill, and at dawn, he persuades [Gokul] to help him slide down, despite [Gokul]’s knee pain.
The next morning, they visit a nearby pond, where [Gokul] reunites with his childhood sweetheart, [Vanitha]. [Anbu] befriends Vanitha’s son, Kumar, and gifts him his waveboard. [Gokul] is surprised to see Vanitha’s husband, Gunasekhar, living a contented life, despite running a small eatery, which contrasts with [Gokul]’s own struggles with loan EMIs. [Gokul] also fulfills a promise he made to Vanitha in school by fetching a sunflower. He keeps his debt troubles hidden from Vanitha, but she senses the burden and offers to help. Meanwhile, [Anbu] receives a call from his school crush, Jenna, inviting him to her lavish farmhouse in Karambur. When [Gokul] discovers [Anbu]’s expensive slippers are missing, he grows frustrated and searches the nearby hills. [Anbu] opens up about his desire for his parents to be with him always, like Kumar’s parents are with him. [Gokul] consoles [Anbu], and they press on. [Anbu]’s excitement grows as he watches a swarm of ducks and draws a dinosaur in the riverbed, receiving a duck egg as a gift. At a sunflower farm, [Anbu] plucks a flower for Jenna, following in his father’s footsteps.
At Jenna’s farmhouse, they spend time watching a movie in a private screening setup. However, [Anbu] grows slightly irritated when Jenna’s father lies about a body massager being a spaceship. The night intensifies when Jenna’s father and [Gokul] engage in a dance battle, with [Gokul] attempting to dance despite lacking skills. [Anbu] is unimpressed and tearfully tells his father that he didn’t dance properly. Jenna’s father notices similarities between [Gokul] and his own father, both trying to be heroes in their sons’ eyes. Meanwhile, Glory’s cash box goes missing at the expo, and she suspects her employee, Myna, of theft. Myna returns with the box, explaining she took it for safekeeping. Later, Myna reveals she had considered stealing the money for her lover’s medical expenses but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Moved by Myna’s story, Glory hands over her entire earnings to her. Glory then boards a bus to Chennai, but [Gokul] asks her to get off at Tindivanam.
The next morning, [Gokul] and [Anbu] leave Jenna’s house, and [Anbu] asks [Gokul] to promise to quit smoking. [Gokul] appears to agree, but secretly smokes away from [Anbu], who witnesses the act. Angered, [Anbu] runs away and climbs a tall tree, hoping to force his father to rise as well. Yet [Anbu] becomes stuck, and [Gokul] fetches a ladder to rescue him. After [Anbu] climbs down, he grabs the ladder and runs off, leaving [Gokul] stranded. [Anbu] joins other kids playing football, while [Gokul] calls Glory for help. Glory arrives, only to find [Gokul] stuck in the tree, not [Anbu]. After freeing [Gokul], they spot [Anbu] playing football. When [Anbu] sees his father, he runs away again, and [Gokul] and Glory chase after him. [Anbu] hops into a pond, knowing [Gokul] can’t swim. Although Glory does not know how to swim either, she dives in, but [Anbu] escapes once more and climbs onto a tractor. Glory struggles to exit the pond. [Gokul] pursues the tractor, but loses sight of it and collapses from dehydration, unaware that his water bottle is in his bag.
Fortunately, the tractor reappears, and [Anbu] is dropped off nearby. [Gokul] and Glory locate [Anbu] on a hill and approach carefully, as he’s afraid to come down. Yet [Anbu] gathers the courage to descend and even learns to use the outdoors as a toilet, choosing a more natural way of living. He demands that his parents seek a place where they can live in harmony with nature, rather than in their locked apartment. [Anbu] races toward a tea shop, and [Gokul] promises to quit smoking for good. Meanwhile, Glory tosses aside her puff inhaler, having not used it all day while chasing [Anbu] across hills and ponds. [Gokul] and Glory begin to dream aloud about moving to a village or another setting that offers a happier, more nature-connected life, instead of chasing wealth. The film closes with a voiceover urging parents to spend meaningful time and participate in physical activities with their children.
