Wake in Fright tells of a young teacher, John Grant, who arrives in a rough outback mining town planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. He feels disgruntled because of the onerous terms of a financial bond which he signed with the government in return for receiving a tertiary education. The bond has forced him to accept a post to the tiny school at Tiboonda, a remote township in the arid Australian Outback. Grant is returning to Sydney for the holidays, but must spend a night in an outback mining town on the way. He is introduced to the illegal two-up gambling ring and hopes to win enough money to pay off his bond and escape his "slavery" as an outback teacher, however he quickly loses all his money. Grant finds himself dependent on the charity of bullying strangers while being drawn into the crude and hard-drinking lifestyle of the town's residents. In the company of some hard-bitten and disturbing locals he is drawn into a frightening spiral of alcohol and drugs that takes him to the darkest depths of the male psyche.
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