"The Clan of the Cave Bear" is the story of a mixing of cultures. An orphaned girl of early Homo sapien ancestry, named Ayla (Daryl Hannah), is found by the medicine woman, Iza (Pamela Reed), of a tribe of Neanderthals. As Ayla becomes a young woman she is repeatedly threatened by the other members of the Neanderthal tribe because she is different. As Ayla grows into a strong woman and hunter, her friends, Iza and the medicine man Creb (James Remar), become older and weaker and the soon-to-be leader of the tribe, Broud (Thomas G. Waites) tries to get her kicked out of the tribe but the spirits are on Ayla's side.