In the country of Amestris, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric live with their mother Trisha in a quiet rural town while they teach themselves the arcane art of alchemy. When the brothers attempt a forbidden ritual—Human Transmutation—to resurrect Trisha after she dies of illness, the act backfires in brutal fashion. The tragedy leaves Edward missing a left leg, and Alphonse's soul ripped from his body, fused to a suit of armor at the Gate of Truth. To save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm and binds his soul to the armor, a drastic move that marks the beginning of a long, arduous journey. Their automail prosthetics are crafted by the town’s skilled mechanic, and the brothers’ childhood friend, Winry Rockbell, soon becomes a key ally in their quest to fight back and heal.
Edward receives an invitation from Colonel Roy Mustang to join the military, a path that makes him the country’s youngest State Alchemist with the title “Fullmetal Alchemist.” This new status thrusts the brothers into a bitter, sprawling search for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary prize believed to restore their bodies and fully undo the horror they endured. As they push forward, they cross paths with powerful figures who test their resolve and their ethics, including the enigmatic Major General Hakuro, who offers guidance and reveals the deeper costs behind alchemy’s promises. He introduces them to Shou Tucker, a controversial bio-alchemy expert who earned his State Alchemist credentials by creating a talking chimera, and Tucker points them toward Dr. Tim Marcoh, a former Stone laureate who has gone into hiding.
When Edward and Winry locate Marcoh, they are shocked to discover that he has been murdered by Lust. Returning to the Tucker residence, they uncover a grimmer truth: Tucker has transmuted his own young daughter Nina and his dog into a sentient chimera in a desperate bid to retain his status. They arrest Tucker, but he tries to turn Alphonse against Edward, triggering a painful confrontation between the brothers as they realize how thin the line is between science and monstrosity. [Maes Hughes], Mustang’s close ally, makes a troubling discovery from Marcoh’s notes, but is killed by Envy, an associate of Lust who has her own hidden agenda.
Using Marcoh’s notes, Edward is led to the clandestine Fifth Laboratory, where the now-insane Tucker holds Alphonse and Winry hostage. A mounting crisis hits when Edward learns that Philosopher’s Stones are ethically created from human lives, a revelation that shatters his faith in the very method he had pursued. Lust’s manipulation is unveiled as Tucker’s secrets unravel, and the military’s corrupt underpinnings come into sharper view as Hakuro’s true loyalties surface, revealing a larger conspiracy behind the alchemical riches. Hakuro attempts to unleash a hidden army of Mannequin Soldier Homunculi powered by stones, but is ultimately slain in the aftermath of the explosive confrontation.
In the end, Mustang defeats Lust and tears out the Philosopher’s Stone powering her body, but he refuses to hand the stone to Edward, and the brothers decline the offer to restore Alphonse by human means. Instead, Edward uses the stone to appear before Alphonse’s corporeal form at the Gate of Truth and pledges to seek another way to save his brother—one that does not rely on the unethical power of human-alchemy. The story closes on a cautiously hopeful note, even as a mid-credits scene reveals Envy surviving Mustang’s assault and slipping away in its true parasitic form, hinting at further danger to come.
