Not very distant future. Another world war ended in a nuclear conflict. Most of humanity has been destroyed. Former leading countries lie in ruins. In the post-war world, a new organization appeared and quickly gained strength - the Ethics Agency. Its goal is a complete ban on everything that threatens the physical survival of mankind. The prohibition of nuclear and any other powerful weapons, the prohibition of environmentally dirty industries and energy sources. The prohibition of culture and religion, as phenomena that generate enmity between people. In fact - a ban on feelings. The goal is true equality and eternal peace. Soon the supranational state of Ethics was created, gradually absorbing all the others. Somewhere - voluntarily, and somewhere through a military invasion. And now, more than ten years later, only the Independent City of Tokyo remains outside the control of the Agency. The last place on earth where people remained people in the former sense of the word. And then one day, a thirteen-year-old boy Toru, a resident of Ethics, appears at the advanced patrol of Tokyo. He himself does not understand why he fled, and what led him to the camp of the enemy. In any case, he does not protest against the system. He still considers the policy of the Ethics to be ideal. The people of Tokyo are also suspicious of the intruder and place him under round-the-clock surveillance by the young soldier Ryuuji. But the owner of the local hospital, Natsuki-sensei, is sure that deep inside the robotic Tohru is an ordinary, sentient person...