In the far future, Zalem, a flying satellite city whose populace live in near paradise, drops it garbage on the people living in its shadow, where life is hard and brutal. One day cybernetics doctor Daisuke Ido comes across the remains of a cyborg in the dumping grounds, and takes her home back to fix her, naming her Alita (Gally in the Japanese version). Alita become enraptured with Yugo, a young boy with dreams of making it to Zalem, and after following Daisuke in the night, discovers that she has supernatural fighting abilities, which she uses to become a bounty hunter to help Yugo.