When Simon Legris, a physician from Paris, returns from an expedition to Africa, he brings home a monkey that understands human speech and names him Jacques LeSinge. Utterly devoted to him, Jacques becomes his servant. While in the service of an ailing marquis, Legris receives some shattering hews - Jacques has been accused of molesting the aristocrat's wife and has been dismissed in disgrace. After an audacious French Revolutionary plot goes wrong, Jacques stands in the dock in Hartlepool accused of espionage. Warrens, a lowly 'one-guinea brief' barrister, stands to defend him. In the greatest challenge of his career, he mounts a defence that asks: what makes a man? A demonically witty digest of all things eighteenth-century, this is an eccentric and hugely entertaining debut.