Celestine de la Tour is French and a geneticist, Lilith Cassidy, better known as Cass, is a foreign aid worker from Sydney. They fell for each other and are a new couple. Cass suggests a weekend away in Tasmania. During a sunrise walk on the beach overlooking the Tasman Sea, Celestine finds part of a whale skeleton, and the new couple decide to reassemble the skeleton together. This fateful morning, it turns out, is on the day the Gene Queens are born.