Humans have managed to cheat themselves out of their only viable planet, but not before a questionable alien race intervenes. The hapless humans are space-lifted off Earth to a sketchy, alien-built scaffolding where nothing grows and everything is contrived. Still in its preparation stages for accommodating the new guests, it offers little more than a brutal backdrop where only the strongest survive. Chaos ensues and war breaks out. Lines are drawn and battles rage across the artificial and poorly-equipped island.
Bad actors involved in unethical lab experiments back on the home planet pick up right where they had left off, this time without any government oversight to hinder their misguided pursuits into the realms of genetically modified hybrids.
Nicodemus Wulvedale, a man who will stop at nothing in his thirst for power, is opposed by the very forces he helped to create. The laboratory specimens fondly known as skunk monkeys-chimps with abilities far beyond any predecessor-present an unexpected force to be reckoned with. Some, like Nancy Wulvedale, stepdaughter of Nicodemus, want to see them all dead. But others, like
Jack Prinster, grandson of the scientist genius behind their origins, form a kinship with the creatures.
The sprint to the bottom is an all-out foot race. Who will be first to discover the secret lair of food, water, biofuel, and good growing soil, all just there for the taking? And what kind of game are the aliens running? Is there much more at stake than meets the human eye?
Who lives and who dies in this precarious new existence? It's anybody's guess on this dystopian landscape known as Petri?