The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man��in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local��newspaper from a teacher looking for serious��pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned��office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling��delicately on a slender branch. 'You are the��teacher?' he asks incredulously. 'I am��the teacher,' the gorilla replies. Ishmael is��a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story��to tell, one that no other human being has ever��heard. It is a story that extends backward and��forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth��of time to a future there is still time save.��Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the��lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to��come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny��to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny��possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever��imagined?