During the buildup to the Cuban missile crisis, a sixth-grade boy in upstate New York accidentally interrupts a mechanical man from the future on a mysterious mission to prevent nuclear annihilation. The man entrusts this mission to the boy, who learns that to save the world he must kill a US Senator.

During the buildup to the Cuban missile crisis, a sixth-grade boy in upstate New York accidentally interrupts a mechanical man from the future on a mysterious mission to prevent nuclear annihilation. The man entrusts this mission to the boy, who learns that to save the world he must kill a US Senator.

Ignatius, a young orphan, develops an unlikely friendship with his bully, Donny, and Donny's father.