During the Cold War shortly after the Soviet Union launches ''Sputnik 1'' in October 1957, an object from space crashes in the ocean just off the coast of Maine, then enters the forest near the town of Rockwell. Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates and finds a giant robot attempting to eat the transmission lines of an electrical substation. Hogarth eventually befriends the Giant, finding it docile and curious. When it eats railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train, the train collides with it and derails, and Hogarth leads the Giant away from the scene, discovering that it can self-repair. While there, Hogarth shows the Giant comic books of the adventures of Superman.