Paris, 1817, within the Académie Royale de Médecine. "I've never seen a human head that so closely resembles a monkey's." Anatomist Georges Cuvier is categorical when looking at the cast made of Saartjie Baartman's body. A panel of distinguished colleagues applauds the demonstration. Seven years earlier, Saartjie left South Africa with her master Caezar and was exhibited to the London public in carnival freakshows. A free and fettered woman, she was the icon of the lower depths, the "Hottentot Venus" promised the mirage of a glittering rise in the world...