The novel initially starts with an introduction of the titular character Charlie Chan Hock Chye as an old man talking to an interviewer before transitioning to his childhood, where he is seen working in his family's shop in post-war Singapore.

The book then cuts between the life of Charlie and excerpts from his comics, explaining that he was educated in an English school through the generosity of one of his family's shops' customers.

This pattern of cuts between comics and his life continues throughout the rest of the novel as the comic steadily changes from one about a Giant Robot to an allegory for Singapore's quest for independence from British Colonial rule, featuring animals and sci-fi epics allegorizing Singapore as a city under the rule of aliens with Lee Kuan Yew as a lawyer who speaks the language of the aliens.

A grant of S$8,000 was initially given for the creation of the novel by the National Arts Council, but was revoked on 29 May 2015, ahead of the 30 May official book launch at Kinokuniya Singapore Bookstore due to "sensitive content" which sparked controversy.

[2] A spokesperson for the NAC responded in a newspaper forum that the graphic novel "potentially undermines the authority of legitimacy [sic] of the Government and its public institutions and thus breaches our funding guidelines".