Plot summary
50,000 years before the events of the novel, the planet Garth was leased to the Bururalli who, imperfectly uplifted, reverted to a pre-sophont state and nearly destroyed its ecosystem by overhunting all large indigenous species. The ecologically sensitive galactic civilization declared a war of extermination and the Bururalli were made extinct. As the youngest clan in galactic civilization, Earthclan is mostly relegated to near-hopeless "recovery worlds" for colonization, and they are granted a lease to inhabit Garth.
The novel begins in the year 2489 C.E. [2] with the avian Gubru planning to invade Garth. The Gubru, a conservative and somewhat humorless alien race, decide to hold Garth hostage in an attempt to learn more about the discovery that the dolphin spaceship Streaker made in Startide Rising about the Progenitors.
The Gubru overpower Garth's token space forces, in the battle a neo-chimp soldier of Earthclan, Fiben Bolger, pilots a small craft that is damaged and crash lands in the mountains. The Gubru engage a small portion of their ground force in ritualistic combat against Earthling forces, and Earthclan successfully defends its legal right to the planet under the standards of Galactic law. However, the Gubru immediately take hostage most of the human population using a pre-planned subterfuge consisting of repeated, wide aerial distribution of a poisonous gas specially formulated to target humans. In order to receive the antidote, the humans must report to island prison camps and agree to be imprisoned during the occupation. The Gubru, used to galactic norms, mistakenly believe that the neo-chimp population on Garth will be easily controlled without their human patrons to guide them.
Taking advantage of resentments that fester among the lower social strata of the neo-chimp population (those with limited rights to breed), the Gubru subvert some of the neo-chimps in and around Port Helenia, the capital city. At the same time, a large group in the mountains, led by Robert Oneagle and Athaclena, engage in guerrilla warfare. Their combination of "wolfling" ingenuity and galactic diplomacy allow them to inflict significant damage, both psychological and physical, on the Gubru. Fiben Bolger, in town on a fact-finding expedition for the Resistance, runs afoul of one of the conspirator neo-chimpanzees known as Irongrip.
Elsewhere on the planet, Athaclena's father Uthacalthing, the Tymbrimi ambassador, and the Thennanin ambassador, Kault, are shot down while fleeing the Gubru invasion. The two ambassadors land safely, but must trek several hundred kilometers back to civilization. The Tymbrimi are allies of Earth and well known for a low sense of humor that, along with a yen for surprise, motivates much of their behavior. By contrast, the Thennanin are portrayed as dour, supercilious, protectors of the rights of animals and species. Hoping to fool Kault with an elaborate and ultimately costly practical joke, Uthacalthing secretly instructs a furtive neo-chimp to create false evidence pointing to the existence of Garthlings – a fabled race of pre-sentient creatures that were rumored to have survived the Bururalli holocaust. Uthacalthing also plants evidence about the Garthlings in his "diplomatic cache" – which is, after being disturbed by Fiben Bolger, stolen by the Gubru. Unknown to him, some renegade humans have already been illegally beginning the uplift process of gorillas, meaning that there actually is a 'Garthling' race up for adoption.
The three Gubru co-commanders (suzerains) overreact to most situations. When the Suzerain of Cost and Caution is killed in an accident set up by the neo-chim resistance movement, the other two suzerains exploit the situation and further their own goals. The Suzerain of Propriety seizes on the Garthling myth and builds an enormously expensive hypershunt on Garth. If Garthlings can be found, the Gubru will be able to use the hypershunt to adopt and indenture the race for 100,000 years [3] in exchange for uplifting them to sentience. At the same time, the Gubru and others find evidence of secret uplift in the mountains, and come to believe that Earthclan was hiding a secret effort to uplift Garthlings.
The suzerains are unable to resolve their internal power struggles and begin scheming against one another. Fiben Bolger begins to fear that Earthclan's well-known naivete at Galactic punctilio could imperil the entire neo-chimpanzee population, both on Garth and on Earth. Some of the key neo-chimpanzee characters are eventually forced to choose between following the legal representatives of the surviving Planetary Government, or to follow their original leaders, Robert Oneagle and the young Tymbrimi Athaclena. Many of the major characters must weigh their personal feelings against patriotic duties and greater responsibilities. There is a trial by combat during the Uplift ceremony between Fiben Bolger and Irongrip for the right to choose patrons for their next stage of Uplift, as the Gubru attempt to co-opt the uplift of the neochimpanzees in order salvage the massive expense of building the hypershunt. In the end, Uthacalthing's joke succeeds beyond his wildest imaginings, as the partially uplifted gorillas suddenly come forward as Garthlings and indicate their willingness to be uplifted by the Thennanin, with Humans and Neo-Chimpanzees as their consorts (races tasked to ensure that uplift is not mishandled or abused). Athaclena and the remaining resistance fighters come down from the mountains and deliberately assemble in an exposed position, showing their willingness to die rather than allow further acts of war to damage Garth's already damaged ecosystems. The Suzerain of Beam and Talon orders his soldiers to destroy them, but they disobey and kill him, and the Gubru leave Garth in shame. As the book comes to an end, Uthacalthing's maneuverings have brought desperately needed assistance to Earthclan and its allies out on the starlanes, as the Thennanin and their allies join the conflict on Earthclan's side.
