In October 1957, during the Cold War, an object from space crashes in the ocean just off the coast of Maine and then enters the forest near the town of Rockwell. The following night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates and finds the object, a 50-foot-tall alien robot; he runs away but then returns to save the robot when he gets electrocuted while trying to eat the transmission lines of an electrical substation. The incidents lead paranoid U.S. government agent Kent Mansley to Rockwell. The following night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates and finds the object, a 50-foot-tall Hogarth eventually befriends the Giant, finding him docile and curious. When Hogarth leads the Giant away from the area he is discovering that he can self-repair. While there, Hogarth shows the Giant comic books and compares him to the hero Superman. The incidents lead paranoid U.S. government agent Kent Mansley to Rockwell. He suspects Hogarth's involvement after talking with him and his widowed mother, Annie, and rents a room in their house to keep an eye on him. Hogarth evades Mansley and leads the Giant to a junkyard owned by beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, who reluctantly agrees to keep him.
