Six children are identified by a team of
UNESCO researchers investigating child development. The children have extraordinary powers of intellect and are all able to complete a difficult brick puzzle in exactly the same amount of time. British psychologist Tom Lewellyn and geneticist David Neville are interested in Paul, a London boy whose mother Diana clearly hates the child and insists she was never touched by a man. This is initially dismissed as hysteria and it is implied she has loose morals. But after a while, the two men realize that all six children were born without fathers and are also capable of
telepathy. The children, from various countries –
China,
India,
Nigeria, the
Soviet Union, the
United States, and the
United Kingdom – are brought to London for a collective study into their advanced intelligence; however, the children escape from their embassies and gather at an abandoned church in
Southwark, London. They intermittently take mental control of Paul's aunt to help them survive in the derelict church. Meanwhile, the Army and Intelligence Service debate whether or not to destroy them. The children have demonstrated the capacity for
telekinesis and construct a complex machine which uses sonic waves as a defensive weapon, which kills several government officials and soldiers. But the Army realizes that they only fight back when attacked. After psychologist Tom Lewellyn makes a passionate plea, asking the group to return to their respective embassies, the children obey and murder embassy and military officials before returning to the church. Lewellyn urges the government to treat the children fairly; however, his team of scientists observe the difference between an ordinary human blood cell and the cells of one of the children, indicating that the children are non-human, and destined to become a threat to the human species. When authorities try to take control of the children, they are forced to protect themselves. As the situation escalates into a final showdown between the Army and the children, one of the scientists postulates that the judgment of the children being alien was incorrect, and that the children's cells are in fact human, advanced by a million years. Meanwhile, the children also imply they have arrived at the decision that their presence is incompatible with that of the comparatively primitive humans around them, and therefore they intend to lower their defences and sacrifice themselves. The military commander recognizes a mistake has been made, and aborts the attack command; however, the command is triggered accidentally by a screwdriver – one of the simplest of human tools. The church is destroyed, and the children are killed. ==Cast==