The adventure centers on Nobita Nobi and Doraemon as they revisit a familiar Arabian Nights story through a magical storybook gadget. Frustrated with watching from the sidelines, Nobita pushes the book to invite Shizuka Minamoto into other tales, hoping for a more active journey, and accidentally drags along Takeshi Goda and Suneo Honekawa. Gian and Suneo meddle with the stories to craft a “fresh” version, turning the mashup into a chaotic swirl of legends that Shizuka dislikes. When their escape options collapse, Shizuka is knocked out by Sinbad’s magic carpet and swept into the desert, leaving Nobita to retreat back to the real world at his mother’s urging to tidy up the scattered storybooks.
The next day, Doraemon discovers that Shizuka hasn’t returned, and the original storybook is destroyed. Nobita dreams that Shizuka has been taken as a slave aboard a ship, which spurs the friends to mount a rescue mission. Doraemon confirms that the Arabian Nights world overlaps with the 8th-century Abbasid Caliphate, so they travel to Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Posing as foreign traders and humble servants, Nobita, Doraemon, Gian, and Suneo gain passage from Basra to the desert frontier, initially aided by Mikujin, a bumbling guide genie. Mikujin grows irritated when they treat him as incompetent and eventually leaves, though he still keeps an eye on their journey. After buying a ship, the quartet is betrayed by the trader Cassim, who reveals himself as the traitor, and they are thrown overboard.
Waking on the edge of the Arabian Desert, the foursome find themselves separated from Doraemon’s pocket—Cassim and his two minions have seized it—forcing them to cross the sun-scorched sands. Cassim and his band of followers endure the same harsh trek, while Doraemon’s pocket remains out of reach. Their luck shifts when a gigantic genie—commanded by Sinbad—appears and reveals a marvelous city hidden in the desert, a place introduced by an anonymous time traveler from the future. With the genie's magical gadgets, the group works toward reuniting with Shizuka and rescuing her from Abdil, a bandit who intends to offer her as a gift to Sinbad. Abdil’s memory of the city’s location is a fragile thread, since when Sinbad pressed him to drink a memory potion after his visit, Abdil spat it away.
Inside Sinbad’s city, Abdil and Cassim waste no time in pressing their advantage, racing through secret passages to seize the colossal genie and unleash it on Doraemon’s group, who are then imprisoned. Mikujin returns, recovering Doraemon’s pocket from the desert and guiding a perilous escape. The group slips past the looming time hole and is shut out once more, but Sinbad’s city remains a beacon of hope. Liu-like, Sinbad’s spirit of resolve inspires Nobita and his friends to stay the course; they urge Sinbad to emulate the courage from his past, helping him regain hope and push forward. Through a tense final confrontation, they manage to reclaim the city and reset the memories of their companions so the events unfold properly this time.
With the city secured and the threats neutralized, [Nobita Nobi] and his friends confront the dilemma of returning to the present. They are offered the chance to stay, but they choose to return home, bidding farewell to Sinbad and the desert’s wonders. Their journey comes to a close as they step back through the storybook, rejoining their own world, and the end credits roll with a nod to Mikujin, who lingered in the background of their adventure. The experience leaves them with a deeper appreciation for friendship, memory, and the way stories can weave danger and wonder into one unforgettable voyage.
