A mysterious artifact, taken from a collection of unusual relics from the past is being lavished with attention by a team of specialists. It looks like a futuristic sculpture, but we find that it is actually a scientific instrument. The film follows, step by step, the restoration of a 1950 particle accelerator at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan. We observe the restoration of the materials, surfaces, and valves, to the recovery of memories and gestures. It is a collective rite: restorers, curators, former users of the machine work to transform a "thing" taken from the everyday life of the laboratory into a museum "object," the guardian of several stories.