The hugely powerful and pervasive presence of the Colossus supercomputer mechanically runs Earth and its myriad operations. Managed by its inventor, Dr. Charles Forbin, it really is incapable of lies and void of individual emotion.

It is not a robot rather than human.

As part of its brief to improve the human race, it runs eerie emotion research centers, authorizing acts of savagery to measure resistance and feeling. Art and abstract creation are banned, and surveillance is usually constant. No-one is free.

The energy of Colossus is spiraling uncontrollable.

The Sect worship it as a God, enforcing its word at every opportunity and seeking out traitors. The Fellowship secretly oppose it like a power of evil, plus they risk their lives in a concentrated effort to kill it and get away its domination.

Meanwhile, mainly because Forbin becomes significantly disillusioned with what he offers unleashed within the world, his wife, Cleo, becomes distant, with disastrous implications.