A girl named Sheeta falls out of the sky and lands the arms of Pazu, a mine lift operator. Soon after a gang of air pirates led by Dola, as well as a mysterious man named Muska, are on their tails. The chase leads them to a floating castle that once belonged to an ancient race of people.

Title changed to Castle in the Sky for Stateside release by Disney as Laputa is a bad word in Spanish. It is also the name of a floating island in Jonathan\'s Swift\'s \'Gulliver\'s Travels.\' However, that Laputa is a land of abstracted scientists with absolutely no common sense.