In the country of Amestris, alchemy is widely practiced as an exact science. Two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, tried as children to use alchemy to resurrect their dead mother, but paid the price. The elder lost an arm and a leg, and the younger lost his entire body, though he was miraculously saved at the very last moment when his brother bound his soul to the steel armor of a knight. Now the two brothers - the first with steel prosthetics, the second just talking armor - are searching for the Philosopher's Stone to bring back Alphonse's body.