A genre-defining tale of first contact by one of the twentieth century's most brilliant--and neglected--science fiction and horror writers, whom Stephen King called "the best writer of science fiction that England has ever produced." What if the women of a sleepy English village all became mysteriously and simultaneously pregnant--and the children, once born, possessed supernatural (and possibly alien) powers?

A mysterious silver object appears in the sleepy English village of Midwich, and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone wakes up unharmed--except that all the women in the village are now pregnant. The resultant children of Midwich are blond, possess golden eyes, grow at an abnormally fast pace, and exhibit telekinetic abilities: they are shockingly, frighteningly Other. As their powers bring them into conflict with the villagers, news of other eerie, golden-eyed children in Russia and China reaches Midwich. Faced with the unknowable--and potentially unstoppable--threat of these children, the question arises: What will humanity do when faced with the threat of the unknown?