Plot
Donna Jensen, living in a Silver Springs, Nevada trailer with her alcoholic mother and abusive stepfather, desperately wants to get away. After graduating high school, Donna struggles to earn a living working as a clerk in a Big Lots store with her high school boyfriend, Tommy.
After Tommy leaves her, Donna is inspired by a TV interview with Sally Weston, a former flight attendant who wrote a memoir titled, My Life in the Sky. Donna becomes a flight attendant for Sierra Airlines, a small, seedy regional airline. She works with senior attendant Sherry and Christine Montgomery. During this time, she meets law school drop-out Ted Stewart. Donna wants to apply to Royalty Airlines and convinces Sherry and Christine to join her at the company's job fair in San Francisco. While Christine and Donna are hired, Sherry is not, and she remains with Sierra.
Training under eccentric teacher John Whitney, Donna studies hard, and, after meeting Sally, is determined to be assigned to the airline's esteemed Paris first-class international route. After taking her exit exam, Donna is shocked and disappointed to be assigned to a domestic route based in Cleveland while Christine, who struggled throughout the course, is inexplicably assigned the highly-sought New York City route.
Although unhappy in Cleveland, Donna runs into Ted, who has returned to law school there. They begin a relationship and Donna spends Christmas with Ted and his family. A few months later, Donna runs into Christine, whose flight was diverted to Cleveland due to a mechanical issue. Donna is shocked to find Christine has stolen Royalty Air items in her handbag, as the smallest theft could result in termination. Donna begins to suspect a processing error occurred on her test. With Sally's help, Donna discovers that Christine switched their test I.D. numbers during their final exam. Weston has airline security spy on Christine. Caught stealing, she is fired.
Donna re-takes the exam, achieving a perfect score. She is assigned to a Paris, first class, international route, though it results in her ending her relationship with Ted. Christine confronts Donna and violently attacks her before being apprehended by airport security.
Though proud to have achieved her goal, Donna soon realizes that she is lonely and unhappy, and misses Ted. With Sally's encouragement, she returns to Cleveland and she and Ted reconcile. The film ends with Donna—now a pilot—wishing her passengers well as they land in Cleveland.
