Red

Desperate for experience, and a chance to earn his stripes, 23 year old Melbourne pilot accepts gruelling work in remote Outback Australia - and tries to forget the girl he left behind. ACE student, William Boyston's whole life has been about flying. He's sacrificed everything to get his pilot licence, leaving him with a massive overdraft, an unhealthy Top Gun obsession, and an addiction to Luigi's Italian coffee. Renting a shared house in Nineties Melbourne, with Adam, his cool-but-unwashed, bushwalking flatmate, he only has one thing on his mind - to get his four stripes, and Captain Boeing jets for an international airline. But jobs are scarce in the city, and he's at the bottom of the career ladder. Eager to take any work, however menial, and pay off his escalating debt, he accepts his only job offer. Which means relocating 3000km, to the harsh, far north of Australia - and saying goodbye to his prized Toyota Corolla T18, to Adam, and to their intriguing new flatmate, Molly Malone. Will is determined to focus on the long game. He can't let anything - or anyone - derail his plans. Especially Molly. His brain has always been filled with co-ordinates and vectors, and there's never been room for anything else. Yet since she's moved-in they've both been aware of a simmering attraction. Before he leaves, Molly agrees to take the Toyota, in exchange for a small loan. Will promises to return for it, and pay her back. For him, it's another debt in a long line of debts; but the car keeps a line of communication open which, secretly, neither of them want to relinquish. In the isolated towns of the Northern Territory, Will's life is defined by stifling heat, squalid accommodation, and the peculiar habits of the locals. Social opportunities are almost non-existent. Work is erratic, living expenses sky-high. Yet he lives to fly, it's all he's ever wanted. Except now he has Molly on his mind - the girl he just can't forget. Constantly moving towns, to follow the work, he mostly stays in touch with Molly by letter, outlining the in-flight dramas in the bush planes he flies, and the regular weird encounters with his mad, bad, and often scary neighbours. This life is nothing like the big city - snakes, dead neighbours, recalcitrant water buffalo, crocodiles, and relentless hordes of blowflies. Things hit rock bottom when the flying dries-up, and he's forced to polish cars and work in a bar to make ends meet. His dream of working for an international airline is slipping further away. His letters to Molly are dwindling. Worst of all, air safety is being compromised on his few remaining flights - yet with plenty of other pilots vying for work, he has no choice but to keep on flying. In Melbourne, Molly has been unable to forget Will. So when he stops writing, she makes a rash decision to head north in his Toyota, imagining her 3000km road trip is simply about returning the car. When she finally tracks him down, it's clear both of them have unfinished business. Forced to stay for a while, until Will can re-pay the loan, the spark soon re-ignites when they move into a ramshackle rental house together. As the land flourishes with the arrival of The Wet, their relationship undergoes a similar transformation as they continue to circle each other. Eventually succumbing to a consuming and passionate affair. It's only when contact is lost with Will's plane, in a vicious tropical storm, that they each face the life and death consequences of his troubled flight, and what they truly mean to each other.