Marlin is the
younger son of the world-famous explorer Ronan Rackham, the owner of the Zoo at
the Edge of the World, a resort where the well-to-do from all over the globe
can come to experience the last of the wild left at the end of the nineteenth
century. Marlin is a stutterer, is teased or ignored, but talks freely to the
animals. In order to impress a
powerful duke, Marlin's father ventures into the jungle and brings back a
mysterious black jaguar, the only one in captivity. Everyone is terrified of
it, including Marlin until one night, when the jaguar’s mystical ways make it
possible for the animals to talk back to Marlin. Now Marlin isn't so sure his
family's zoo is the best place for them to live.