The film examines the mind of
anthropologist Ethan Powell who had been missing for a few years, living in the jungle of
Uganda's
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest with
mountain gorillas. He is convicted of killing and injuring several supposed Wilderness Park Rangers in
East Africa, and is sent to prison. A bright young
psychiatrist, Theo Caulder, tries to find out why he killed them, but becomes entangled in a quest to learn the true history and nature of humankind, stating that
civilization has steadily destroyed the natural world, advocating that humans abandon this. Eventually it is revealed that during the course of Powell's stay with the gorillas, they accepted him as part of their group; he was attempting to protect his
great ape family when the
poachers arrived and started shooting them. He gets a hearing to reveal the truth, but an attack by a vicious guard on another prisoner causes Powell to be reminded of the killed gorillas, at which point he violently attacks the guard to stop him, is restrained and stops talking again. At the end of the film, Powell escapes from prison using a pen to dig out the lock on a window, and heads back to Africa. ==Cast==