This story is narrated from third person point of view with consciousness centered on Robert Stratton, an English Victorian scientist. It is an example of the steampunk subgenre of science fiction. The latter part of 19th century is part of an alternative universe, where retrofuturistic inventions form everyday reality.

Robert Stratton creates automata, robots that work based on the “names” inserted into them. Working in the field of “nomenclature,” Robert devises names that allow automata to complete complex tasks. Each name consists of 72 Hebrew letters, arranged in 12 rows of six; the theology of the time states that all names are “reflections of the divine name” (142), and the action of a true name is to animate each object. This produced legendary golems. However, “current thinking held that there was a lexical universe as well as a physical one, and bringing an object together with a compatible name caused the latent potentialities of both to be realized” (143).

As a young boy, Robert witnesses his friend Lionel’s attempt to keep sperm alive under laboratory conditions. In this era and universe, people still believe that all living things were created at the beginning of time and lie dormant waiting their turn to exist.