664 BC: An adventurer named Hanno returns, near death, to his home city of Carthage on the Mediterranean with an incredible story to tell. With him he brings the flayed skin of a terrifying creature he calls a gorilla , and on it he has written an account of his adventure. The skin is nailed to a pillar in Carthage for all to read, but Hanno's greatest secret he tells only his brother Hamilcar. When Hamilcar disappears during a doomed voyage to the Tin Islands, and Hanno dies having resolved to tell nobody else, the secret is apparently lost for all time.