Sunburn (1999) Full Movie Summary & Plot Explained

Davin McDerby is a young Irish man who has saved up money for an abortion, but when his girlfriend decides she’s not going through with it, she walks away and leaves him to confront the consequences alone. Across town, Robert Fiske, a tense and restless young man, stops at an arcade to bid farewell to friends before heading to America. Their paths cross as Davin overhears talk of a summer program that sends young Irish people to work and live in America, specifically Long Island, and a plan to chase a new life begins to take shape.

Davin packs for the journey and crawls out of the house on his bike, pausing to bargain with his younger brother over a pair of Adidas Predators before finally slipping away. He hops onto a bus, and a roadside video touts the kinds of summer jobs awaiting Irish youth in America. It isn’t long before Robert Fiske spots Davin, teasing him about fishing as a viable way to earn money abroad. They fib about their own experience and, to their surprise, manage to land work with a fisherman who buys their story. The moment hints at the improvisational grit both men will rely on when the future becomes uncertain.

Meanwhile, a young, high-spirited woman named Aideen Higgins appears in a bustling scene with a big group of friends. She lands a job as a dispatcher for a cab company, a role that will place her at the center of a network that ties many lives together across continents. Her energy marks her as someone who can navigate chaos with humor, charm, and a practical mind, and soon she becomes a pivotal connection in the unfolding summer story.

As Davin prepares to leave, he learns that the fishing trip will take two weeks and decides to jump off the boat at the port, leaving Robert to fend for himself in unfamiliar waters. A boxing club scene later shows Davin’s rough edges: a friend mentions a guy who can help with immigration, Billy, and Davin’s attention drifts toward the possibility of expedient shortcuts. In a twist of fate, Aideen arrives with the immigration man, and Davin is distracted enough to be punched in a clash that underscores the precarious balance between ambition and risk.

In another thread of the story, a new character enters with a different kind of influence. Davin encounters Veronica and gets a clearer sense of the darker sides of the world he’s stepping into. He recognizes Aideen as the “queen of the airways”—the dispatcher who runs the cab company’s network—and their paths connect in a way that blends friendship with something more charged. This is the moment when Davin understands that the American dream he chased might also require navigating the moral gray areas of people he’s met along the way.

Billy, the immigration fixer, shares stories of his New York circle and pushes Davin to come up with a plan for his family back home. Davin asks Robert for money to send to Margaret, the mother of his child, but quickly learns that his own family has already sent money, leading to a tense dispute that tests their budding solidarity. Despite the friction, Davin uses the funds to buy a car, a move that upends their expectations and deepens the rift between the two friends.

As days stretch into nights, Aideen’s jealousy surfaces when she senses a closeness blooming between Davin and Billy as well as between Carolyn Kramer and Robert. Davin and Aideen spend more time together, while Carolyn grows closer to Robert, adding a layer of romantic complication that chips away at everyone’s sense of stability. When Davin’s ex-girlfriend’s message arrives, it becomes clear that the baby’s presence looms large in the choices they all face. A house party turns tense as Carolyn returns to find her space violated, leaving Robert hurt and the group’s fragile alliances strained.

The summer winds down, and Davin faces the consequences of his decisions. He returns Robert the money and offers a sincere apology, a small gesture that helps them to reflect on what their time in America has revealed about loyalty, maturity, and the hunger for something more. The two friends take a final round of golf together, trading thoughts about family, responsibility, and what it means to chase dreams far from home. Davin hints at the possibility of smoothing things over with Aideen, offering to drive Robert to the airport to say goodbye.

The farewell scene tightens the emotional circle: Davin invites Aideen Higgins to join him for a last ride, hoping to coax her into staying, while the car begins to fail on the road, a tiny emblem of the larger breakdowns the summer has exposed. In a quiet, intimate moment, Davin and Aideen share a kiss as the journey to the airport reaches its destination, leaving the rest of the group to walk the final steps to the terminal. The film closes on a note of ambiguous possibility—two souls weighing the pull of the homeland against the lure of the new world, and two friends who have learned that some cures for longing come not from escape, but from facing the truth together, even when that truth is messy and uncertain.