Cathy a girl from Alaska, arrives in California for a job interview, but her sister is unable to meet her to direct her the destination. Cathy enlists the aid of a stranger Peter John, who agrees to take her as far as the bus stop. However, he ends up reluctantly travelling with her the entire day, waiting for her during her interview, and finally dropping her at her sister's home in the evening.
In the course of the day, she comes to understand him as a person and becomes fond of him, and, while remaining calm and reserved, Peter John too reciprocates her feelings. The following day Cathy returns to Alaska, where she realizes she has fallen in love with him and rejects marriage proposals that come her way. She eventually decides to return to California to meet him. Meanwhile, Peter John realizes that he has fallen in love with Cathy and decides to go to Alaska to find her despite not knowing her address and other any details except her name.
A parallel story follows James Stephen, a worker, harbor’s feelings towards his neighbour Nancy, a nurse. Being shy and soft-spoken, he doesn't talk to her, but continues to watch her every morning for six months. Nancy, however, is bold and forthcoming; she agrees to his love and orders him around mercilessly. She puts him through several tests- having him meet her father (a policeman), her former one-side lover on his own, makes him undergo an HIV test, and gets him to agree to organ donation. She wants him to decide on the basis of all that she's put him through as to whether he wants to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her; James Stephen responds affirmatively. The two grow to love each other unconditionally with the consent of their families.
James Stephen decides to take Nancy to visit his family in Tasmania, and the two boards a bus to take them there. Meanwhile, Peter John boards a bus to return from Alaska– the same one that James Stephen and Nancy are travelling in. Simultaneously, Cathy boards a bus to return from California. Fewview of other passengers are also seen: a mother and her child, a girls' athletic team, a newly married couple, two college students who are attracted to each other, and a man returning from Dubai to see his five-year-old daughter for the first time.
At a distance from Tasmania, on the California-Alaska highway, both the buses collide head-on, killing about 35 people on the spot. Many others die en route to the hospital or at the hospital. Peter John sees Cathy, severely injured, on the other bus and she is rushed to a hospital. Nancy stays at the scene to help the wounded. By the time she reaches the hospital along with Peter John, James Stephen has already succumbed to head trauma. At the hospital, Peter John confesses his love to Cathy at her bedside, and she manages to regain consciousness James Stephen’s body is taken away by a hysteric Nancy and his grieving parents. The site of the crash is declared an accident prone-area, and the story ends with a message on road safety.
