After two years of fighting its way back to Earth, the SDF-1 is home. Captain Gloval and First officer Lisa Hayes prepare to meet with the United Earth Defense Government at its secret headquarters in the Alaskan wilderness. Their mission is crucial. They want to convince the governing council to work towards a truce between the Zentraedi and the people of Earth. After two years of fighting its way back to Earth, the SDF-1 is home. Captain Gloval and First officer Lisa Hayes prepare to meet with the United Earth Defense Government at its secret headquarters in the Alaskan wilderness. Their mission is crucial. They want to convince the governing council to work towards a truce between the Zentraedi and the people of Earth.

Lisa and Gloval are met with a cool reception. The council hears them out, then dismisses them with a vague promise to consider their proposal. Gloval is convinced that something is very wrong.

While the two officers puzzle over the council’s seeming indifference, Rick Hunter and Lynn Minmei encounter a mystery of their own. Rick flies Minmei back to Japan so that she can visit her parents in the Chinatown section of Yokohama. Minmei’s parents are shocked – but delighted – to find their daughter alive. Minmei’s cousin, Lynn Kyle, hears the commotion and comes into find out what is going on. Rick and Minmei learn that the Earth government has circulated the story that everyone living on Macross Island had been killed. Kyle is pleased to learn that his parents, Minmei’s aunt and uncle, are alive. Although Minmei’s parents would prefer that the girl remain with them, she persuades them to let her return to her career on board the SDF-1. Reluctantly, they agree to let her go, but they send Lynn Kyle to accompany his young cousin. Kyle is a cynical opportunist. War has made him a bitter young man. He can see only the negative sides of situation. Kyle and Rick are not destined to be friends.

Captain Gloval and Commander Hayes are called back in to the council meeting, where they are advised that their request for a peace negotiation has been rejected. Gloval demands to know how the council thinks it can win against the Zentraedi forces. The council wants to know why Gloval thinks they can’t. Their decision is based on insufficient knowledge regarding the alien culture. They cannot be sure the Zentraedi would participate in a peace settlement in good faith.

To Gloval’s additional dismay, the Earth council refuses to allow the 70,000 inhabitants of Macross City to return to the planet. Press censorship had been exercised from the day the Robotech battlefortress disappeared. The government did not want anyone to know that the world was at war with invading aliens. In an effort to circumvent global panic, they released a story that a guerrilla force had attacked and destroyed Macross Island after the ship had left on its test flight. They do not want their propaganda invalidated by the return of 70,000 supposedly dead friends and relatives. The council concludes that it is more crucial that the SDF-1 draw the enemy forces away from the planet - at any cost.