It is a full year after the robots' rebellion on the island. Alquist is having another sleepless night at a desk covered in papers in the facility's laboratory. He still struggles to recreate Dr. Rossum's original formula for producing the robots. "Why did you not leave me a trace of the formula," he whispers to the dead Rossum. He long ago abandoned sleeping given the constant whirring noises of the robots.

Alquist is summoned to a meeting with the Central Committee of Robots, which just arrived at the harbor. Led by Radius, the Committee reminds Alquist that the robots still cannot produce new robots. Assorted supplies for creating the robots are ready, but without the formula, the robots cannot move forward with their plan to build a generation of lesser robots designed to follow their orders. "Without that formula, within 20 years," they lecture Alquist, "no robots will be left."

They command Alquist to deliver Rossum's formulas and tell him he can name his price. They tell him they have sent expeditionary boats to distant ports, and Alquist is the last surviving human. The robots have slaughtered humanity, so they must negotiate with him now or face their own extinction. They cannot breed, and they are sterile. They need the formulas.

Alquist assures them he is an engineer. He is trained as an architect and a builder of things, not a chemist or a biologist able to reproduce Rossum's work. Sweeping his hands around the lab, he tells them plainly, "Nothing I do will make life proceed from these test tubes."

Desperate, the robots volunteer their own to dismantle to help Alquist recreate the formulas. The suggestion appalls Alquist, but he agrees. He proposes using Radius for the first dissection. But Alquist cannot bring himself to commit what he sees as "murder." He collapses and falls into a deep sleep.

Primus and Helena, two of the most recently designed robots, enter. They are curious about Alquist's work strewn about his desk. Even as Primus searches about the papers on the desk, certain the key to robot life is somewhere in the mess, Helena goes to the window. She admires the beauty of the rising sun and the sweet music of the birds. "I feel an aching in my body," she says, "in my heart, and all over me."

She shares with Primus how she has explored the island and found a cottage hidden away in the woods with a garden and two friendly dogs. "They tell me I am not made for work, but when I was there in the garden, I feel there may be something—what was I made for?"

Moved by her words, Primus says that she is beautiful. He tells her to look in the mirror. Helena offers to smooth Primus' hair. "I must make you beautiful, too." Impulsively she sticks a rose from the garden into Primus' hair. They laugh.

Their laughter wakes Alquist. He moves toward Helena to take a closer look at the new model. But Primus steps in to stop him, and Alquist realizes Primus is trying to protect Helena. These robots have developed feelings. To test his theory, he instructs Primus to take Helena to the dissecting room so he can study her.

Primus refuses. He offers himself instead. "I will not live without her." Alquist puzzles over this reaction. "Why should it matter to you, Primus. One less robot in the world?" It is then Helena offers herself in place of Primus. She threatens to kill herself if Primus is dismantled.

Alquist realizes that robots have achieved sophisticated feelings of selfless love. Alquist agrees not to dismantle either one. Instead, he sends them away. "Go, Adam, go, Eve. The world is yours."