What kind of country is it where even flipping is a crime? Crocutania, a totalitarian state on the edge of Europe, is sinking into chaos. In the midst of it all: a young athlete who learns not to give up, even when it seems there is nothing left to win. Tijan Sila's second novel is a bitterly comic parable about the power and powerlessness of the individual in an amoral system, where everyone must bear guilt to survive. These are dark times when sixteen-year-old Ambrosio, who later becomes a cycling legend known as "Golden," begins his career. The country is marked by decades of total isolation and is firmly in the grip of the Spiroist party, which is trying to combat the rebellious youth gangs and Spiroist splinter groups with increasingly brutal methods. Ambrosio, who actually has enough to deal with.