The protagonist, Charlie Friend, is a former anthropology student and AI enthusiast. He’s 32 years old at the start of the novel, unemployed and attempting to use the stock market as his main source of income. He’s in love with his upstairs neighbor Miranda, a university student 10 years his junior. He describes his life as having been lived “in a state of mood neutrality” (8). Although he takes risks with jobs and financial investments, Charlie has no real emotional investment in life or professional or spiritual ambitions. He is self-aggrandizing, admires his physical body, and believes deeply that his love for Miranda is the most worthwhile aspect of his life.

Charlie buys Adam, part of the first wave of artificial humans, due to a love for robotics—and is able to afford Adam because of an unexpectedly large inheritance. Throughout the novel, Charlie regards Adam as an object that he owns, which prevents him from taking Adam’s emotional and moral development seriously. To protect Miranda from facing a perjury trial (for lying under oath), Charlie attacks Adam with a hammer and effectively destroys him.

Charlie’s love for Miranda motivates him to accept her proposition of adopting Mark despite his reservations about suddenly becoming a father.