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A solar flare that shone on Earth about 20 years before the story occurred killed more than 99 percent of the world's population. Survivors congregate in a network of safe cities and construct primitive humanoid robots known as Pilgrims to assist in rebuilding and operating in harsh environments. The robots follow two unbreakable protocols: they cannot harm any form of life, and they cannot repair, modify, or alter themselves or other robots in any way. Initially viewed as mankind's salvation, they are reduced to manual labor when they fail to halt desertification progress. A society that has suffered a setback due to a lack of technology other than Pilgrims, due to a lack of airplanes or any other means of transportation that prevents travel, as cars are scarce commodities, and humanity is on the verge of extinction. In 2044, Jacq Vaucan works for ROC, the company that created Pilgrim, as an insurance investigator, looking into reports from Wallace, a police officer who shot a robot he claimed was modifying himself. When Jacq goes in search of a robot suspected of stealing parts, the robot takes him out of town. It had already caught fire by the time he discovered it in the shipping container. When he and his team open the burning robot to see what's inside, they find a rare nuclear battery that can power the robot indefinitely. They were able to restart the robot, but when he asked why it was on fire, it caught fire again. Jacq is the one who rescues the remains and also speculates against his boss, Robert, that there may be a "watchman," someone who is illegally modifying the robot and thus overrides the second protocol. Surprisingly, Robert dismisses the possibility while offering Jacq a transfer out of town if he can find evidence. Jacq's pregnant wife initially opposes his plans, but eventually agrees. Jacq and Wallace go to a brothel and find Cleo, a modified robot who Wallace shoots in the leg. When Jacq objected, Wallace stated that Cleo's owner would take them to the watchmaker; Wallace threatens to kill Jacq if he does not share the proceeds from black market battery sales. Jacq then tracked down Cleo's owner to a watchmaker named Dr. Dupré, who claims he has no idea who changed Cleo and acts that will destroy Cleo's CPU. Jacq then leaves the burning robot's CPU with him and offers to give him the battery if he can find out anything about the watchmaker. Cleo had already fixed the problem by the time Dupré installed the modified CPU. Dupré then called Jacq, who informed Robert; however, the ROC intercepts Jacq's message and dispatches an assassination team to Dupré's lab. Dupré is murdered, but Jacq flees in Cleo's car. Cleo leads them into the labyrinth of cages, and the two cars collide, killing the assassins and injuring Jacq. Cleo then transports Jacq to the desert, where they are joined by three other robots, none of whom will follow Jacq's commands. However, the initial procedure required them to save his life. Jacq, desperate to return to town to be with his expectant wife, contacts Robert, who dispatches Wallace to get him. Wallace endangers Jacq's life and destroys two robots who protest to his conduct; Jacq then kills Wallace with a flare rifle before he can harm Cleo as well. Wallace's associate flees after stealing a battery from one of the robots. Boss Robert says that the original Pilgrim's precursor was a quantum mind constructed without any security procedures or artificial constraints on its computational capacity. Before they were deactivated, the creators commissioned him to create a security system for the pilgrims. Robert's employer informs him that no one can compromise Pilgrim's security protocol since it was built by an unconstrained quantum mind, and ROC also intentionally restricts the processing capabilities of all succeeding AIs. ROC then compels Robert to join a crew ordered to assassinate Jacq and an unnamed watchmaker before the robot can advance any further. When Robert opposed to their capture, the leader, Jacq's wife and newborn daughter Conway, shot and killed him. Meanwhile, Jacq meets the robot in charge of changing the others. The robot and the other robots intend to travel to a radioactive location where people are not permitted. Jacq, who was first suspicious, gradually agrees that the robot, like people, grows spontaneously. Jacq then handed them the battery, which they used to finish a new design, a type of robot dog/insect, after a series of philosophical talks. Robot then heads to town to fix the car for Jacq. Conway has destroyed two of the four robots by the time he arrives to the robot station. When Conway injures Cleo and kills the advanced robot, Jacq returns to the outpost to discover a dying Robert. Jacq then kills all of the ROC assassins except Conway, who is hurt more during the combat. Conway is about to murder Jacq when a new robot saves his life by shoving Conway down a cliff. When Jacq reunites with her family, she quickly overcomes her fear of robots, and while she travels to the beach with them, Cleo and the new robot venture farther into the lit desert, where no humans can follow them. When they arrived at the shore, they discovered the ocean, as well as that the Earth was healing and that mankind still had hope.