In January 1976, newspapers around the world ran pictures of Oliver, a bald, upright-walking chimpanzee whose owners claimed he might be a cross between a human and an ape. The film traces how Oliver became a sideshow and media sensation, sold from owner to owner, used in advertising and even considered for laboratory work, all while his strange gait and hairless face fed speculation that he was a genuine humanzee. Interviews and archival footage follow the scientists who eventually tested that claim, running chromosome counts and later DNA analysis to settle what Oliver actually was. Along the way the film reconstructs the exploitation Oliver endured, including years spent chained in a cage at a research facility before animal welfare advocates intervened. It is as much a story about human credulity and cruelty as it is about one unusual primate, tracking Oliver from tabloid curiosity to a quieter retirement once the humanzee theory collapsed under genetic evidence.