1981, When Norman Forrester of the Defence Ministry's experimental institute effects a successful fertilisation of a female gorilla a with human semen, the infant that is born, Gordon, known as Gor, is his son in two senses. But Gor's parentage remains a secret. In Forester's Britain he has no legal existence as an individual because his existence has never been divulged to the government data bank. In two sense Gor is 'non-person'.

Operated on so that he is capable of speech, Gor grows through boyhood and adolescence into a strong, intelligent youth. when he discovers his true identity, he is desolated by his outcast destiny, but ultimately finds a home amongst some of the exiles from a computer-dominated class-oriented society.

Maureen Duffy's novel offers both an enthralling, fast-moving narrative and a vivid parable of the individual's struggle to win acceptance from his fellows and to overcome the forces that seek to destroy human individuality in any age.