On a sweltering afternoon, the heat has made the island animals irritable. Roz watches Brightbill on the water as other goslings tease him, then sees Brightbill hurry home angry and upset.

Roz follows Brightbill into the Nest and asks what is wrong. Brightbill admits that the other goslings called Roz a monster and mocked him for having a monster mother. Roz offers to speak to them, but Brightbill refuses because he believes that would only make the teasing worse.

Brightbill then asks what a robot is. Roz explains that a robot is a machine, built rather than born, though Roz does not know who built her and only remembers waking on the island shore. Roz says she has changed since then: Roz was once shiny, straighter, and spoke a different language, but Roz still understands little about her own origins.

When Roz says she is not alive because Roz does not eat or breathe and is not an animal, Brightbill objects that Roz moves, talks, and thinks, so Roz must be alive. The conversation shifts to parenthood, and Brightbill asks whether Roz is his real mother. Roz explains that there are many kinds of mothers and admits Roz is not Brightbill's birth mother, though Roz has tried to act as his mother.

Roz tells Brightbill the truth about the spring accident: falling rocks killed his family, only one egg survived, and Roz carried that egg away, protected it, and watched Brightbill hatch. Brightbill asks whether he should stop calling Roz Mama, but Roz says Roz will still act like his mother no matter what. Brightbill chooses to keep calling Roz Mama, and they agree that they are a strange family, but one they both value.