In Wake-Up Call, Sterling Haynes shares the humorous and sometimes tragic tales of his life as a frontier doctor: a man shoots off his big toe in a drunken binge and then begs the doc to get him to Sunday Mass on time, an inmate swallows a spoon to avoid solitary confinement, an accident with a Murphy bed leaves a man hanging for more than ten hours and an encounter with a tick has devastating consequences. "I worked long hours, made house calls, went out with the ambulance and flew to remote accident sites, sometimes receiving payment in-kind: hinds of beef, lamb and moose, bags of potatoes and turnips and on one occasion, a big game guide brought me a four-point buck in payment for delivering his first son, leaving the dressed carcass in the centre of my waiting room." In this second collection of short stories, Haynes shares honest and raw insight into doctoring in small-town North America.