In an old forest, an android named Giovanni Lawson discovers an abandoned, derelict building that is empty except for a single golden flower. Over the course of many years, Giovanni cheerfully undertakes the work of rebuilding the dwelling; filling it with a collection of circuit boards, books, and music boxes; and adding a laboratory and a sunroom up in the treetops. He begins to experience a burning pain in his chest and, after careful calculation, determines that his ailment is “loneliness, pure and simple” (3).

The ache in his heart grows stronger over the next three years until one day a terrified man and woman stumble upon his home and beseech him to take care of their baby. The couple hurries off into the forest before Giovanni can learn the boy’s name, and he decides to call the child Victor. Giovanni’s loneliness vanishes once he becomes a father. When Victor hasn’t started speaking by the time he turns four, Giovanni worries that something is wrong with the child, but he dismisses his fears, saying of Victor, “If there was ever perfection in this world, it would be you” (4). Victor begins talking at age six when he forms stick figures of himself and his father and identifies their subjects.