In an alternate 1930's Prohibition-era New York City, it's not liquor that is outlawed but the future production of highly sentient robots known as automatons. The surviving automatons are given basic civil rights, living among us as an underclass of social outcasts, the victims of human prejudice and strict laws governing their existence. Automata follows former NYPD detective turned private eye Sam Regal and his incredibly smart automaton partner, Carl Swangee. Together, they work to solve the case and understand each other in this dystopian America.