First Born begins in 1975, with Edward Forester (Charles Dance) and his wife Ann (Julie Peasgood), who is days away from giving birth. Cut to the delivery theatre, and a baby boy is born, only out of the ordinary by having an unusual amount of body hair. But then the mother goes into convulsions, and a large hairy arm is seen: the mother is a gorilla called Mary. Edward Forester has succeeded in producing the first hybrid of primate and human, a boy he calls Gordon, or Gor for short.