On a voyage to the New World, Robinson Crusoe, an English cartographer, sails with his loyal Airedale Terrier Aynsley. A violent storm rages through the night, and in the chaos they are locked below deck with two spoiled British Shorthairs, Mal and May, while the rest of the crew escapes with their lives. Crusoe is knocked unconscious by a lantern, and Aynsley watches over his fallen master as the ship succumbs to the sea and sinks, leaving the deck soaked and quiet except for the distant cries of survival and the sudden stillness that follows tragedy.
Crusoe wakes alone on a mysterious island the next day, determined to find a way back home. From a safe distance, a colorful cast of island residents keep watch: a kingfisher named Kiki, an elderly goat named Scrubby, a veiled chameleon named Carmello, a Malayan tapir named Rosie, a ground pangolin with an Australian accent named Pango, a scarlet macaw named Tuesday (real name Mak), and an echidna named Epi. The animals grapple with the tension of a stranger on their soil, worried that danger could come from this new arrival. Yet Tuesday views The Stranger’s presence as a potential doorway to the outside world, a chance to glimpse what lies beyond their island borders.
When Tuesday is ambushed by Mal and May, Aynsley intervenes and Crusoe manages to bring Tuesday aboard the wreckage. Aynsley convinces Tuesday that Crusoe and he are friends, a fragile trust forming in the wake of chaos. But Mal and May deceive Kiki and the others, fueling fears that Crusoe has murdered Tuesday and turning the island into a tinderbox of suspicion and conflict. The duo strike at Tuesday while Aynsley protects him, and catastrophe follows as Aynsley is pinned beneath a door as the ship’s remnants ignite into flames. Tuesday escapes just in time, but Aynsley dies in the explosion, leaving the island residents convinced that Tuesday did not survive the blast. Mal and May tumble from the wreck into the inky black water, washing up on a nearby smaller isle known as Curse Island, a place rumored to be home to bugs and other risks.
Crusoe, soaked and grieving, meets his newfound friends again as Tuesday returns with a heavy heart. Scrubby suffers a heart attack, and the islanders slowly begin to realize Crusoe is genuinely friendly, offering aid and companionship as they help him adjust to life on the island. Yet tensions rise as Kiki grows weary of the others’ willingness to adapt to Crusoe’s world, preferring the old rhythms of island life.
Meanwhile, Mal and May endure, surviving on insects as May unexpectedly gives birth to a brood of kittens, fueling the cats’ resolve to reclaim their place on the main island. The feline threat eventually makes its way back, and an outnumbered Crusoe and his animal friends mount a spirited defense to preserve their peaceful enclave. In the heat of battle, Crusoe is knocked down and Mal sets his home ablaze, intending to end the laid-back life he and his companions have built. The animals lure the cats into a wooden watchtower that Crusoe has fashioned, triggering a collapse that sends the cats into the black water below, while a portion of the tower floats away as a makeshift raft.
Just as the celebration seems near, Tuesday spots smoke and discovers Crusoe still trapped beneath the burning ship. She darts to his aid and frees him from a tangle of planks, and the pair escape together. But a falling plank knocks Crusoe unconscious just as the others arrive to help. The situation worsens when cannons thunder from a distant ship, and a crew of pirates arrives, led by Long John Silver, who appears intent on rescuing Crusoe and transporting him aboard their vessel.
Crusoe narrates his version of the tale to the captain, while Tuesday confides the true story to Rufus and Cecil, a pair of ship mice who hear the real sequence of events. The pirates prepare to sail, but Crusoe learns they do not intend to return to England, and, with Tuesday’s help, he makes a daring escape back to the island, narrowly avoiding capture. The unlikely fellowship of Crusoe and his animal friends survives the ordeal, choosing to spend the remainder of their days in their island home. The cats, meanwhile, find a new place among the pirates, adopted as companions and mischief-makers aboard the pirate ship, where they become part of the crew’s life on the high seas.
