A young seagull with fear of heights has to survive the night after falling from its rooftop, and finally learn to fly.

SYNOPSIS:

This animated short film follows the yearly life and nesting circle of a family of gulls on a rooftop. When a young seagull falls off the rooftop, it has to survive the night, and finally learn to fly.

A pair of seagulls, Meena and Frank glide over the rooftops of the city. They are on their way to an appointment, maybe today they will find their dream home. The apartment viewing is crowded - it is a top address with view of the harbor and a garden nevertheless - but they manage to convince the real estate magpie and move in. The two lovingly build and decorate their nest and soon become friends with their neighbors Burt and Gil, another pair of seagulls who live on the other side of the roof.

Meena and Frank lay their eggs, and expect twins, as do their neighbor gulls. When the eggs hatch, we meet Flausen and Pip. The two chicks are their parents' absolute pride and joy, even if their constant hunger is not so much. Pip and Flausen try to leave the nest as soon as they are able to move, attempts that are stopped vigorously by Meena and Frank, although they know: sooner or later do they need to leave the safety of their shelter.

Finally, Flausen and Pip are allowed to leave the nest and examine their surroundings that is the vast and labyrinth-like rooftop, all within the rooftop's raised surrounding wall. While exploring the dense woods of tall-grown grass, Pip and Flausen make a discovery: they are not alone on the roof! They meet Burt and Gil's chick, Lin, and become the best of friends. Together, they not only test out the boundaries of their enclosed rooftop realm, but as they grow faster and faster, their parent's patience and nerves. The taller the children grow, the less high the once insurmountable wall seems. When Pip and Flausen make the first attempts - under much flapping and screeching - to fly, which amounts to being a foot or so in the air for a very short time, it is only a short while until they walk along the wall. Flausen experiences a mild vertigo for the first time, as he looks down into the courtyard deep below him.

One day, Flausen and Pip want to visit their friends. When they get to the other side of the grass forrest, something is not right. They are immediately sent back by the upset Burt and Gil: Lin is missing. Back home, Flausen is angry and confused, he does not know what happened. Lost in thoughts, the walks along the wall. An urge to look on the other side overcomes Flausen. Suddenly, a surge of vertigo lets him tilt over and fall into the deep.

Flausen manages to break the fall and land without injuries in the gray cold world of the courtyard. High above him, Flausen hears the other Seagulls screech, they did see his fall. Cautiously, he starts exploring the new surroundings, while the others circle above him, shouting advice, sometimes one of his parents swoops down, but never lands.

Suddenly a big fluffy thing, a barking dog, tries do get to him, but is held back by it's owner. More and more Humans appear, talking to each other, looking at Flausen. He waits and observes them, wondering what this might mean. Then he freezes. There are other animals in the courtyard, too. He knows them, out of stories and from afar, looking through the windows of the apartments surrounding the courtyard: cats! And one of them stares at him intently, then starts moving towards Flausen, relaxed, ducking away under the humans, picking up speed. Flausen hesitates what to do, then puffs up, preparing to fight. In the last second, one of the adult seagulls swoops down, screeching and wildly flapping its wings, and scares off the attacker.

Impressed by the authority and might seagulls seem to wield in the world, Flausen is sure nothing can harm him, since he got protection from the air. Despite his parents' warnings to leave the courtyard, and their demands to start flying as soon as possible, he waddles off, through the gate and into the open world. Flausen strides up and down the wide sidewalk, skillfully avoiding humans and cars. He comes to a bigger street, where he turns back, because it is too scary, and walks back into the courtyard.

The courtyard is empty now, as is Flausen's stomach. He tries what he knows best, squawking for his parents to bring him food, but nobody answers. He tries finding food himself, but fails to do so in the gray and barren landscape of stone. Sun sets, the courtyard falls into shadow, then darkness. The occasional seagull high above stops circling. It gets cold way faster down here than on Flausen's rooftop. He freezes. Flausen seeks shelter between bicycles and garbage tons.

Then he hears the sounds: Feet tapping on stone, clicking of claws. A distant meowing. rustling and crackling in the bushes. Flausen tries to hide as good as he can. The sounds come closer, straight towards him through the hedge that is supposed to protect him. Flausen shrinks flat to the ground. The bushes give way and out from between the leaves steps Lin, the neighbors lost kid. Lin looks a little disheveled, but somehow taller than Flausen remembered her.

Lin tells Flausen that she tried to fly, but sailed from the other side of the roof, and instead of the courtyard she landed in a green garden on the other side of the hedge. The foliage made her harder to spot from the sky, but it provided more places to hide from predators, what she did the last two days, eating plant parts, insects and what she found in the underbrush.

The two snuggle together, taking turns holding watch and survive the night.

Loud noise right next to them rips Flausen and Lin out of their sleep, it is already bright morning. All they see is heavy boots, and that the garbage bins are moving. They start across the courtyard, sprint for the gate and the open street, but the men and thundering, rolling tons follow them. On the street is another huge thing, hissing and thundering at them. Panic strikes, Flausen and Lin try to evade the metallic monster, flap their wings frantically, and make it over the garbage truck. Another huge metal worm, a bus, roars by. The draught pulls them into the big street, whirling them higher - and Lin and Flausen are up in the air. They fly!

Some shaky moments of flapping later, the two stabilize and glide along the street through the warm morning sun. They start experimenting, changing direction and height. Flausen drops, but quickly regains height. He first is insecure, but as he realizes that his vertigo is gone, he gains certainty in flying. He joins Lin higher up and together they fly over the house, across the courtyard and back to their roof. There, they are welcomed by their families with much screeching and flapping.

While the credits roll, Pip starts flying as well. Flausen still needs a long distance to take off from the ground, compared to dropping from the roof. In the end, the seagulls leave the rooftop together and fly down to the harbor. Two pigeons land on the ledge of the rooftop and start inspecting the now free living space.