Ayla struggles to find a balance between her duties as a new mother and her training to become a Zelandoni -- one of the Ninth Cave community's spiritual leaders and healers.

This is the first novel in Jean M. Auel's epic of life 35,000 years ago when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the Earth. It follows the story of Ayla, who is adopted by a group of Neanderthals.

In this second novel of the Earth's Children saga, Ayla, the unforgettable heroine of THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, sets out solo into a world far from friendly. She is in search of others like herself...and in search of love. Driven by energies she scarcely understands, she explores where the clan never dared to travel. In a hidden valley, she finds not only a herd of steppe horses, but also a unique kinship with animals as vulnerable as herself. Still,...