Football star Harry Charles begins college life yearning for acceptance that his small town can't give him. When his father commits suicide, he is thrust into wealth and social prominence, as well as into a chronic depression-an illness little understood in 1917. Harry's charismatic new roommate, Simon, exposes him to gambling, drinking and the seductive world of horse racing at Saratoga Race Course. Harry's addiction to winning at all costs fuels his participation in a rigged horse race, an orchestrated sinking of a valuable car, and the fixed World Series of 1919. Prohibition only intensifies Harry's destructive vices. He sacrifices football glory and helps forge a bootlegging operation that results in the death of two men. Will alcohol and gambling permanently rob Harry of the love of his life, his sanity, his money, and the happy life he may have led? Or will he be given a last chance to become the person he has always been? In this perilous race through life, beating the odds of addiction may make Harry a hopeless long-shot that will never win.