It begins with a car crash, and involves a bout of amnesia, a dog and a mouse fresh from a container dropped from a sputnik (=companion in Russian),whose reflexes are as conditioned as Pavlov's dogs, a shoot-out on a farm,a trip to the USSR where the hero is subject to egregious gaffes ("are there many communists over there?"),and even a space trek Monsieur Martin involuntary enjoys . The farther one travels,the less one knows. After all these events, the hero discovers that there's nothing like a good horse;even a Quatre-Chevaux,this car of yesteryear, is no match for this draft animal.