The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Schulman, Audrey. Theory of Bastards. Europa Editions, 2018.

Schulman’s novel has three sections and 49 chapters. The sections cover Frankie Burk’s 24 days working at the Foundation near Kansas City, three days during a dust storm, and an unknown number of days after the storm. Flashbacks provide additional insight into Frankie’s character.

The story is set in the near future, with biologist Frankie arriving at the Foundation to study the mating habits of bonobos. Frankie is 33, recovering from a recent hysterectomy due to endometriosis. She chooses a researcher named Stotts to be her assistant, against the recommendation of the Foundation’s executive director, in a show of independence.

Bonobos are slightly smaller than chimps and less aggressive. They are known for their indiscriminate sexual activity just before meals. When the keeper brings food, the bonobos mate with whoever is nearby, without regard to gender or relationship, in groups of two or more, in a variety of creative positions. Frankie wants to study how their seeming disregard for desirable attributes in a mate meshes with the theory that individuals usually choose partners that will produce hardy offspring.

At first, Frankie cannot tell most of the 14 bonobos apart. Mama, a nearly hairless female, is the leader, and she has a two-year-old named Tooch. Houdina is the lowest-ranking female, and she has a one-year-old named Id. Both juveniles are nursing, but Tooch drinks from a bottle because Mama cannot produce milk.

Other bonobos include Goliath, a large male who is the focus of Stotts’ research; Adele and Marge, who enforce Mama’s authority in the group; and Sweetie, a gentle male with big eyes.

The Foundation needs maintenance, but high-tech touches include a security system that scans the staff’s BodyWare to authorize entry and avatars that translate English into sign language, which many of the bonobos understand.

Frankie and Stotts develop an easy friendship. Stotts assists her whenever she feels faint and lets her rest on the couch in his office. Frankie watches Stotts try to teach Goliath to make primitive tools, to gain insight into how early humans crafted tools.

Frankie has a Bindi on her forehead, as do many people in this near-future world, along with Lenses and EarDrums. She can control objects around her and access Quark to find information. In contrast, Stotts has an old-fashioned Wrist-able. He is married, and his four-year-old daughter, Tess, has asthma. On the day when Stotts’ wife and daughter leave for England so Tess can receive experimental treatments, Stotts gets a Bindi so he can Sim-call Tess.

Frankie had experienced undiagnosed pain for many years, lying to doctors when necessary to get pain pills. Her parents distrusted doctors and avoided uncomfortable topics. When her liver tore during a sexual encounter with a professor, Frankie had emergency surgery, which revealed her endometriosis. During Frankie’s years living with pain, she began wearing colorful embroidered clothes better suited to toddlers. She shut out her friends and focused on her work.

At the Foundation, Frankie notices that although the bonobos copulate loudly and randomly before meals, when a female is ovulating she has secret sex with a partner she chooses, and they remain silent when they climax. Further, most of the females choose Sweetie, who is gentle and baby-faced. Frankie’s award-winning research had suggested that humans benefit when women take on lovers who will sire strong, healthy babies, then raise them with husbands who have the resources to keep them safe—the theory of bastards.

All is not well in the world beyond the Foundation. Problems include war, weather fluctuations, economic collapse, and poly-roaches that threaten the Quark network and infrastructure. On Day 22, Stotts asks Frankie what bus she will be leaving on, because a huge dust storm is approaching, and the governor has issued an evacuation order.

Frankie refuses to evacuate with most of the staff. She stays behind with Stotts and a few others to care for the apes, who eat hundreds of pounds of food per day. The Foundation has been printing 3–D fruit to reduce costs, but the apes do not like it.

On Day 1 of the storm, the power goes out and the locks fail. The avatar speaks gibberish and repeats that the time is 10:48. The bonobos leave their enclosure and create chaos in the building, and soon the plumbing fails. The staffers weather the three-day storm, rationing food and water.

All is quiet after the storm, with not even a plane in the sky. On Day 4 post-storm, everyone reluctantly agrees to release the apes because otherwise, they will die. Stotts and Frankie leave first with the bonobos, getting a head start to avoid the chimps who can be violent. They head east, toward England, and take shelter in a barn, but chimps arrive and break Mama’s neck. The other bonobos run for their lives. Frankie and Stotts catch up when they stop to mourn Mama.

Each day they travel, and each night they find a new house for shelter. They rarely see other people. On Day 6 they find a plane that crashed shortly after 10:48 on the day when the avatar started speaking nonsense. They realize that technology must have failed on a large scale at that time.

Stotts grows distant, devastated that he may never see his daughter again. Frankie finds a paperback, Kon-Tiki, which tells the true story of people crossing the Pacific Ocean on a raft. This book brings Stotts hope. They continue east, sheltering each night. Despite the bonobos always being underfoot, Frankie and Stotts make love. Frankie imagines helping the bonobos settle at a national park near the Atlantic coast, then finding a boat and sailing for England with Stotts. She realizes that home is not a location, but rather, a feeling.