An unnamed world, an unknown time. A vast mining vessel trawls a sea of mineral sand for valuable ores, the tiny human crew served by an army of humanoid robots. But as the Doctor and Leela arrive, one of the crew is found murdered... and if they didn't do it, who did?

The Doctor and Leela are suspected of murder. But the real foe is using robots to cut down the crew – and even sabotage the sand miner itself!

One of the crew is the insane Taren Capel, who is using robots to carry out the murders. The Doctor discovers that there are also others who aren't what they appear to be either.

The Doctor and the surviving humans fight for their lives against Taren Capel and his growing army of deadly robots.