Mobile Suit Gundam unfolds when war reaches the home of teenager Amuro Ray and shatters the life he knows. In the middle of the chaos, Amuro climbs into the Gundam, the Earth Federation's new secret weapon, and somehow manages to make the mobile suit work. The fighting forces him aboard the warship White Base, which carries Amuro and other refugees away from their homeland as the conflict spreads around them.
What begins as a desperate escape turns White Base into the center of a larger struggle fought by people who were never meant to be soldiers. Amuro is surrounded by children and inexperienced crew members such as Bright Noa, Kai Shiden, Hayato Kobayashi, Frau Bow, Ryu Jose, Sayla Mass, Haro, and later Sleggar Law, while Char Aznable emerges as one of the war's most formidable opposing figures. As White Base moves from one battlefield to the next, Amuro's role inside the Gundam grows far beyond survival. The series follows how this makeshift group of refugees, recruits, and young fighters begins to change the outcome of the war.