Anxious to use artificial intelligence robots to improve the world, bio-geneticist Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) devises a recipe through which she can download her own DNA into a "live" brew she is growing in her computer. She succeeds in breeding three Self-Replicating Automatons—SRAs—that look human, but were bred as intelligent machines. She names them Ruby, Marine and Olive. In order to survive, the SRAs need injections of male Y chromo found only in spermatozoa. Rosetta programs Ruby to absorb images and dialogue of classic movie clips of famous seductions while she sleeps. Ruby acts these out in the real world and shares "donations" with her sisters. Ruby's evolving contact with the real world eventually introduces her to art, spirituality and ultimately, when she meets Sandy (Jeremy Davids), the capacity to fall in love. All of the characters struggle to find meaning in a world where only love makes things real. In the process they find harmony between the real and the virtual world.