Athletic Centre, Toronto. Under her coach's watchful eye, a swimmer struggles against the liquid element to improve her time and earn a spot in national competitions. The training sometimes continues outside the athletic center, in his apartment, where she must submit to rituals designed to free her from her resistance.

Marie-Hélène Larochelle's novel recounts this relationship of power and desire. It tells of what one must sometimes embrace to reach the highest levels of athletic performance. Readers follow the athlete and her team as they train and compete, swimming and almost drowning with her in all kinds of waters. Je suis le courant la vase echoes the recent revelations that shook the sport world, and despite all the chlorine and salt that suffuse the text, the experience leaves a feeling of being dirty and bruised.