Adrift follows the story of astronaut Piers Sellers, who accidentally dropped his spatula in space in 2006. His spatula became a deadly piece of space junk, travelling at 17,000 miles per second. The film then journeys across the remote space-junk watching deserts of Chile, shifts to the current threatening skies inhabited by the International Space Station and tracks the crash of a rocket part back to Earth. The film includes narration by Vanguard, voiced by British actress and director Sally Potter.