Mengejar Matahari is a coming of age tale of four childhood friends in a Jakarta ghetto whose bonds are tested as they grow into adulthood. They share a nightly ritual, "chasing the sun" (mengejar matahari), where they race through the ghetto, symbolically chasing their future. Their friendship becomes strained when Ardi and Damar fall in love with Apin's niece, Rara, just as a neighborhood bully is released from jail and seeks revenge. The film is both about the strength of friendship and a metaphor for the durability of the Indonesian archipelago.