Edward wakes up in 1920s Munich stripped of everything that made him powerful, forced to build his way back home with nothing but research and desperation. The film trades alchemy for history, weaving real Nazi occultism and Weimar decay into a story about what you're willing to sacrifice to return to people you've lost. It swings for a ending that either completes the series or betrays it entirely, depending on who you ask, but either way it refuses to let Edward rest.

Edward Elric has spent two years stranded in Munich, Germany, in 1923, cut off from his own world, his friends and his younger brother Alphonse, and stripped of his alchemical powers. Hoping to find a way home, he researches rocketry with Alphonse Heiderich, a young man who looks much like his brother. The effort has gone nowhere, but helping a troubled gypsy girl draws him into events that threaten both worlds. News that the Thule Society, an occult group closely tied to the Nazi Party, may have found a clue to the mythical Shamballa revives his hopes. In his own world, Alphonse digs deeper into alchemy, searching for a way to reunite with his older brother. The film mixes action, drama, fantasy and some comedy.