Midwich, an English village of ""utter undistinction"" is isolated, immobilized and anesthetized during a ""dayout"", returns to normal- save for the impregnation of the entire female population- a problem faced with some apprehension but handled with great discretion. The golden-eyed babies, when born, have only this one common characteristic, but soon reveal other behavioral idiosyncrasies and the changeling children become a collective menace to which one man finally proves equal... A fantasy, which is also a fable of sterner implications, handles its evolutionary embarrassment with a disarming humor.