When Ayra, a nearly perfect android, is released into the world after total isolation in a lab, she must quickly adapt to life among humans in order to survive. Venturing into the desert in the southern USA, she soon learns about human nature-the good and the bad. When she is viciously attacked by a group of criminals, she uses her programmed skills and superhuman strength to kill one, forcing her into hiding.

Now the subject of a manhunt by authorities, as well as being hunted by the surviving attackers, Ayra befriends a young, working-class man who is also on the run. Despite their lives and their freedom being at risk, their friendship blooms into something Ayra never thought possible in her assigned quest to know what it means to be human.