Orphan of Creation

Introduces the protagonist, paleoanthropologist Dr. Barbara Marchando, her African-American family history and her heritage. Marchando is visiting her family during Thanksgiving, recovering from a recent, bitter divorce, prompting her to seek time alone to explore an attic. She discovers her ancestor Zebulon's diary which yields an account of the arrival of strange, new animal slaves dying from disease soon after arriving and provides motivation for digging on the grounds of the family's former plantation home. The dig is originally intended to identify the approximate location of a rumored pre-Civil War slave graveyard. A large section of the graveyard is found. A smaller separate section of graves yields skeletal remains that all display the same cranial and other bodily disfigurements. To the Dr.'s trained eye they resemble skulls known in fossil records as Australopithecus, a human ancestral species that died out some 1,400,000 years before. However, these remains are at most two centuries old. They are classified as an example of the subspecies Australopithecus boisei. The skeletons' classification and confirmed recent dates of death are impossible according to the accepted fossil record. Despite attempts to maintain a low profile, word of the unexpected findings leak to media. Skeptics express disbelief and ridicule the doctor's conclusions, jeopardizing her reputation and career.

Research of old town records disclose the sale of a new, heartier type of slave to the former plantation's master. The vessel bringing the 'new type slave' cargo is listed by name through the shipment manifest and its port of origin in Africa is identified. Marchando wins funding to visit the African port city and search for traces of what might have been a small enclave of humans displaying traits of an early human ancestor. After several unsuccessful excursions, a promising lead at last points to a remote, isolated and unfriendly group of villagers as a source of 'worker beasts'. A translator, armed escort, Marchando and several companions make plans to visit the isolated group. Marchando and the translator question the chief about stories of white men coming long ago to buy 'worker beasts' from the village and if they might help find where such 'beasts' lived. After an agreement for information is arranged, a young, dirty, naked and malnourished Australopithecus boisei female is led by collar and leash into the hut and handed over as purchased property. Aghast, Marchando realizes she has unintentionally traded a few goods and tools for a living fossil. The chief advises that the trade is fair and that most of the village has at least one beast to perform work they avoid. As the translator explains that undoing the exchange with the chief would prove insulting & dangerous, Marchando and her team leave with the nervous, but otherwise docile female. The doctor and team set about making plans to return to the port city and sedate the female while arrangements are made to transition her to Europe and eventually the United States. The female Boisei is given the name "Thursday" by Marchando. This is both a reference to the day she was found, and is a literary reference to the character of Friday in Robinson Crusoe.

Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, word leaks. Upon reaching a research hospital facility outside Washington D.C., and publication of the find, the shock to the scientific community and general public is intense. Marchando and other researchers are successful in teaching Thursday to communicate by sign language. Thursday is soon found capable of reasoning, compassion and understanding abstract ideas like time and family; far beyond any ape's cognition. The question arises, "what is Thursday"? She obviously is not a Homo sapien nor an ape (Hominidae). Genetic testing reveals she is partly hybrid from past interbreeding of her ancestors and human captors, further confusing her status as a species. Conflicting ideas on her rights emerge. They're seen variously as better substitutes for chimpanzees in medical testing, an easily trained labor force, potentially living organ banks, essentially a future slave race to be considered as beasts or property. Other research centers begin plans to obtain more boisei from Africa, as specimens for study and zoos. As a descendant herself of slaves, Marchando finds this unthinkable. Authorities begin efforts to access and control Thursday in the "interest of science", endangering her safety and life. Marchando is desperate to protect Thursday and prove she should be treated as human. She tracks Thursday's ovulation and secretly conducts an artificial insemination using sperm frozen years ago by her ex-husband. When Thursday becomes several months pregnant, she ignites a legal and moral firestorm over whether to permit her pregnancy to come full term. Before a legal decision can be reached, Thursday births a healthy, mixed female child resembling both herself and a human biological father, thus demonstrating Thursday's full genetic compatibility with modern humanity.

The novel draws parallels between the conventional thinking of centuries ago that humans from Africa were not truly human beings worthy of rights. The novel's ending is left open for interpretation on what it means to be human and where a line, if any, can be drawn between ourselves and our ancestors.