38,000 years ago on Earth - the twilight of a prehistoric era!

No historian recorded their heartaches, triumphs or names. Yet Ayla and others like her left indelible imprints. They continued humankind's long march toward civilization…and away from more primitive groups like The Clan of the Cave Bear.

Daryl Hannah is Ayla in a richly detailed, beautifully filmed screen version of Jean M. Auel's bestseller. Separated from her Cro-Magnon people by a calamitous earthquake, Ayla lives with a less-developed, male -dominated Neanderthal clan. She's different in appearance, in resourcefulness, in her uncommon defiance of social taboos. And from those differences arise conflicts that underscore the Cro-Magnons' evolutionary ascendancy and the Neanderthals' mysterious disappearance from our world.