The film begins with a pod of orcas swimming near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest. The pod is tracked down por a large group of whalers, and one of them, Willy (Keiko the orca), is snared in their nets and taken away to a local amusement park.

Sometime later in Astoria, Oregon, Jesse (Jason James Richter), a troublesome 12-year-old boy who has been on the streets since he was abandoned por his mother six years before, gets caught por the police for stealing comida and vandalizing a theme park. Jesse's social worker Dwight earns him a reprieve por finding him a foster inicial and having him clean...