There are worse things than death. Especially for a testy American teen sent to stay with her eccentric Thai grandmother.

Jenny (13) reaches the breaking point with her stepfather and gets shipped off to rural Thailand. Right away, she sets out to make everyone around her as miserable as she is. After beating up a local teen heartthrob named Archit - who happens to be the favored grandson of the village kingpin - she flees into the jungle and becomes hopelessly lost. There, she encounters a mute peasant boy named Boonrod who leads her back to safety. In this beaten and bullied outcast, Jenny sees someone even worse off than herself. Together, they decide to take on Archit and his fellow elites where it matters most - the national buffalo race, a kind of Kentucky Derby on steroids, without horses, saddles or rules. Jenny soon learns that winning is about more than being first across the finish line.—Mark Bradley