During the Cold War, shortly after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in October 1957, an object from space crashed into the ocean just off the coast of Maine and then entered the forest near the city of Rockwell. The following night, Hogarth, a nine-year-old boy, investigates and finds the object, a 100-foot-tall alien robot trying to eat the transmission lines of an electrical station. Eventually Hogarth befriends the Giant, finding him likeable. The incidents, however, bring a government agent to Rockwell to investigate the facts ...