Sent to a remote island to clear out enemy holdouts, Federation pilot Amuro Ray and his unit end up stranded there when the covert mission goes wrong. Instead of enemy troops they find a group of children sheltering on the island and a lone Zeon mobile suit defending them, piloted by a deserter named Cucuruz Doan. Amuro has to find a way off the island while working out what Doan is actually protecting. The film retells and expands a 1979 episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam that was cut from its English broadcast.