In the far future, Earth's war against the Gamilon has left the planet scarred. Continuous bombardment of radioactive asteroids has made the atmosphere uninhabitable. Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar offers a device that can neutralize the radiation, providing hope for Earth. To deliver this device, the space battleship Yamato, built from the wreckage of its World War II ancestor, is dispatched on a 148,000‑light‑year voyage. The crew has only one Earth year to reach Iscandar and return; otherwise, humanity faces extinction.