In a dystopian future where only a quarter of the world's oversized human population is fed and living comfortably, families must request permission to bear children. Monica Swinton lives with her husband, Henry, and her young son, David, with whom she struggles to bond. She seeks help from Teddy, a robot toy companion of sorts, to try to understand why she feels unable to communicate with David, let alone feel compassion for him. David also questions Teddy about whether his mother truly loves him and wonders whether he is truly real. He attempts to write letters of his own to explain how he feels about his mother and the inner conflict he faces but all of his letters remain unfinished. Meanwhile, the story jumps to Henry, who is in a meeting with a company he is associated with known as Synthank. They are discussing
artificial life forms and bio-electronic beings for future developments. Henry tells them he believes that the new AI under production will finally solve humanity's problems with experiencing personal isolation and loneliness. Monica discovers David's unfinished letters which express both love and a jealous contempt for Teddy, whom Monica always seemed to connect with more than David himself. Monica is horrified by the letters but overjoyed when Henry arrives home and she is able to share with him that the family has been chosen to give birth to a child by the Ministry of Population. It is then revealed that David is an artificial human, used as a replacement for a real child (of that he is himself unaware; however, he becomes aware of it in the second story, "Supertoys When Winter Comes"). Monica tells Henry that David is having verbal "malfunctioning" problems and must be sent back to the factory again. The story ends with David thinking of the love and warmth of his mother. == Film adaptation ==