Wompler's Walking Babies once put Millford, Utah on the map. But they aren't selling like they used to. In fact, they aren't selling at all, and the only alternative to winding up the company is to tap the government for a research grant. And so Wompler Research Laboratories and project 32 come into being.

The plan is to produce self-replicating mechanisms; identical cells equipped to repair intracellular breakdowns, convert power from their environment and create new cells. But suddenly the nondescript grey boxes are crawling around the laboratory, feeding voraciously on any metal they come across- and multiplying at an alarming rate...