From the introduction: Earth, 1957. This planet is exactly like ours with it being the middle of the cold war and tensions are high. But while the Russian satellite Sputnik is orbiting earth, a giant metal robot suddenly enters our planet's atmosphere and crashes offshore of the US town of Rockwell during a hurricane. In one day nine year old Hogarth Hughes will befriend the giant after saving it from some power lines it trapped itself in. He ends up getting the help a local scrapyard owner and aspiring artist Dean McCoppin. Together they try to hide the robot from both the public and US agent Kent Mansley who wishes to destroy the giant. During all of this Hogarth ends up teaching the robot about morality and death. This is a world that asks the question "what if a gun had a soul?"