At the start of Tarzan of the Apes, mutineers maroon the young Lord and Lady Greystoke on the coast of West Africa. They survive only eighteen months, after which point the she-ape Kala takes their year-old son to replace her own dead baby. The boy grows up among apes, learning from them a rudimentary language (the name 'Tarzan" actually means "white skin"), a strong sense of family, and a system of political hierarchy based on kingship of the strongest. Most of the book takes place in the African jungle, although Burroughs makes frequent implicit comparisons between the two worlds that lay claim to the ape-man. In the jungle, Tarzan depends solely upon his own physical and mental powers; when he ventures into civilization, he feels a prisoner.