From the introduction: The Time: The Mesolithic period, somewhere around 20,000-15,000 years before present. Following the end of the ice age, the warming climate is providing an abundance of food and the human population is rising, while the last of the ice age mammals are declining. Stone tools and weapons are the norm, carefully flaked by hand, and hand-woven fabrics are made from animal hair and plant fibres. The Place: Smoke Mountain, a village led by a woman named Kidaha, who is one hell of a womanizer. The village has around thirty inhabitants, and welcomes all women seeking shelter. Men are forbidden, as they are often the reason the women have left their own villages.