Sophie Biyoya-Ciardulli

Sophie is a teenager as the story opens. Her parents are divorced. Sophie lives in Miami, Florida, with her father. She spends her vacations in the Congo with her mother. Sophie's mother founded and operates a sanctuary for bonobos, a type of ape with a DNA very similar to that of humans. Sophie doesn't adapt well to the move to Miami but she is also torn when she spends her summers with her mother. She is half black, half white, which also sometimes seems to weigh on her.

When Sophie arrives for her visit with her mother, she sees a man on the side of the road with a bonobo. She buys the bonobo, though her mother's driver urges her not to do so. Sophie doesn't consider the impact of her actions until much later when the man arrives with two more bonobos, obviously hoping the sanctuary...