When a young chimp named Charlie is abandoned by his mother, Laurel and Charles Freeman and their two daughters, nine-year-old Callie and high school freshman Charlotte, agree to participate in an experiment in which they will live with Charlie at the Toneybee Institute in rural Massachusetts and teach him sign language. As African Americans in a nearly all-white community, they have no idea they are entering an institution that has been historically ruled by racism and misconduct. And as Charlotte discovers the shocking truth of the institute's past, the family struggles to cope with the isolation created by their situation and the disturbing facts that are emerging around them.