The opening chapters describe the creation of Roderick and show his mind (at first consisting of a bodiless computer program) developing through several stages of awareness.

Due to his sketchy understanding of human customs, and intrigues surrounding the project that created him, he unwittingly becomes the center of various criminal schemes and other unfortunate events.

Though the Roderick books are in many ways serious examinations of philosophical issues surrounding the idea of intelligent machines, their plot is (typically for Sladek) propelled by energetic farce and satire.

A running joke throughout is that although Roderick is not particularly human-looking, people are unable to believe that he is a robot or simply fail to notice, and treat him instead as an insane man or a disabled child; but, like Candide or Prince Myshkin (from The Idiot), he never complains and always seeks to please.

The story is also peppered with Sladek's usual puns and word games, and satirical jabs at other science fiction themes, particularly Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.