The medicine she craved was distraction.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: When Frankie Burk arrives at the Foundation, she is recovering from a recent hysterectomy. She had suffered for years before she was finally diagnosed, and she had tried a number of treatment options. The hysterectomy struck what she hoped would be a final blow to the disease, offering an 85 percent chance that her pain would end. Frankie is in the habit of burying herself in her work, and she believes that researching the mating habits of bonobos will distract her while she heals.

Think of a video montage where a human turns into a wild beast—hair sprouting, brow slanting, jaw jutting. If the chimp is the final image, the bonobo is a second earlier.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Frankie Burk is studying the mating habits of bonobos at the Foundation. At first, she only sees them as test subjects, and she cannot tell most of them apart...