Belan is a young man who is fond of beauty and gambling. Due to years of idleness and lack of focus on his career, he has gradually accumulated a large amount of gambling debt. With creditors pressing him relentlessly and every attempt to borrow money from others ending in failure... all these issues have left him extremely anxious and at a loss for what to do. One evening, with a glimmer of hope, he prepared to go to the Clelion Hotel to ask his former lover, Anna, for money to pay off his debts. Coincidentally, in the hotel elevator, he met an Indian from South America named Wano and his translator, Kampaena. Wano was traveling around the world; this time he came to Paris to raise awareness about the issue of protecting the Amazon rainforest. Although Belan led a dissolute life, he was inherently straightforward and kind-hearted, and thus was immediately noticed by Wano. The next day, due to the fatigue of the journey and discomfort from the climate, Wano suddenly had a heart attack and was sent to a hospital in Paris. On his deathbed, he kept calling out Belan's name, asking Belan to travel far to the other end of the world - the Amazon jungle - with Kampaena, to retrieve his soul for him, in order to save his life. Belan, troubled and restless because of various problems and gambling debts, neither wanted nor needed to get involved with this old Indian man.