Sydney, 1962: David Palmer and his girlfriend, Patricia, turn up at a boarding house run by landlady Fiona Thompson. Patricia is heavily pregnant and gives birth in her room within the boarding house. After the birth has taken place, Fiona asks David what he wanted - a boy or a girl? He says he doesn't mind. Fiona tells him he has one of each - twins.

Patricia is not happy, though. After a week, she decides to leave David, and she takes her baby daughter with her. She leaves her son for David to look after. David decides to call him John.

Melbourne, 1982: David Palmer is now married to Beryl, and they have two children of their own - Kevin and Susan - and John is living with them. Susan is about to marry her fiance, Bill, and is trying on her wedding dress, which she shows to David. John decides to invite the whole of Victoria to the wedding, by climbing a mast and attaching a huge banner to it. However, he is caught by the police, and his antics appear on television. Kevin is also arrested, after being caught in a telephone box calling the TV station, and using different voices to say how much he enjoyed John's antics! Beryl is disappointed that both lads got into so much trouble.

When John goes to bed that night, he has a dream in which he is standing in a field, watching a beautiful girl riding a horse.

The next morning, Beryl wakes John up and tells him that he'll lose his job if he doesn't get to work soon. At work at the 'Selmar Warehouse Import-Export', he has an altercation with Bill, who is annoyed at the way John acted the previous night. The two of them knock over a load of boxes, and are caught by Sam Selmar, who tells them to get their act together, or they'll face the sack.