Horse racing is in Christophe's blood. It has become his sole raison
d'être. A Parisian jockey, he has great ambitions for himself,
but the young man's dreams of professional glory are cruelly dashed when
he fails a drugs test at an important race meeting. Unable to give
up his fatal addiction to his favourite sport, Christophe promptly up sticks
and moves to Macau in the Far East. Here, he is massively surprised
by the success that suddenly comes his way. A succession of easy wins
earns him prestige and a great deal of money, and through this he soon makes
himself popular with the opposite sex.
It seems that Christophe has found the success that somehow always eluded
him in his native France. But his good fortune goes to his head and
this prevents him from realising that China has its own rules. The
young man learns this the hard way when he gets himself mixed up with his
adopted country's criminal underworld. What is he to do when his trainer
orders him to lose a race? Before he knows it, Christophe is at the
not very tender mercies of the Chinese mafia, who are not slow to take advantage
of his celebrity and naivety. Fortunately, the young jockey can rely
upon the help of an attractive young woman named Pamsy...
In his letters to his friends and family, Franz Kafka gives us a rich self-portrait that is surprisingly upbeat, nor the angst-ridden soul we might expect.