Prologue --; The original Mr Sykes --; The lonely chromosome --; Ribbons of life --; The last embrace --; Sex and the single chromosome --; How to make a man --; Sex tips from fish --; Why bother with sex? --; The ideal republic --; The sense of sex --; The separation of the sexes --; A war on two fronts --; A rage to persuade --; Men of the world --; Blood of the Vikings --; The Y-chromosome of Somhairle Mor --; The great Khan --; The old school register --; The eleven daughters of Tracy Lewis --; The slaughter of the innocents --; The rise of the tyrant --; The sperm of Tara --; The gay gene revisited --; Gaia's revenge --; Lifting the curse --; Postscript.