This is a story about dreamers.
Axel (Johnny Depp) always dreams of an Eskimo who catches and brings a rare halibut to his family in the igloo. His cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo) dreams of being a great actor while his uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis) dreams of climbing up Cadillacs he sells to reach the moon. One night, Paul drags Axel from New York to Arizona to attend Leo’s wedding. There Axel encounters a beautiful pair of mother and daughter, also dreamers as himself. Elaine (Faye Dunaway) is the mother who has a dream of flying. Grace (Lili Taylor) is the stepdaughter who dreams to commit suicide and reincarnate as a turtle.
Despite the gap of age, Axel crazily lusts after Elaine and starts building a flying machine for her. Grace is so jealous of Elaine that she keeps destroying the flying machine and that leads to fights between her and Axel. However, when Axel’s lust for Elaine fades, he begins to feel a strong sentiment towards Grace. Unfortunately, these five dreamers gradually realize the discrepancy between their naive dreams and the reality and soon they all fall into despair…