For half a century, the Roper resonance has defied understanding. Discovered in 1963, it appears to be an exact copy of the proton except that its mass is 50% greater. The mass is the first problem: it is difficult to explain with any theoretical tool that can validly be used to study the strong-interaction piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, i.e. quantum chromodynamics [QCD]. In the last decade, a new challenge has appeared, viz. precise information on the proton-to-Roper electroproduction transition form factors, reaching out to momentum transfer Q 2 ≈ 4.5 GeV 2 . This scale probes the domain within which hard valence-quark degrees-of-freedom could be expected to determine form factor behavior. Hence, with this new data the Roper resonance becomes a problem for strong-QCD [sQCD]. An explanation of how and where the Roper resonance fits into the emerging spectrum of hadrons cannot rest on a description of its mass alone. Instead, it must combine an understanding of the Roper's mass and width with a detailed account of its structure and how that structure is revealed in the momentum dependence of the transition form factors. Furthermore, it must unify all this with a similarly complete picture of the proton from which the Roper resonance is produced. This is a prodigious task, but a ten-year international collaborative effort, drawing together experimentalists and theorists, has presented a solution to the puzzle. Namely, the observed Roper is at heart the proton's first radial excitation, consisting of a dressedquark core augmented by a meson cloud that reduces the core mass by approximately 20% and materially alters its electroproduction form factors on Q 2 < 2 m 2 N , where m N is the proton's mass. We describe the experimental motivations and developments which enabled electroproduction data to be procured within a domain that is unambiguously the purview of sQCD, thereby providing a real challenge and opportunity for modern theory; and survey the developments in reaction models and QCD theory that have enabled this conclusion to be drawn about the nature of the Roper resonance.