On the grimy streets of Corellia, a young Han flees his pursuers in a stolen landspeeder.

Han returns to the Den -- the home base of the White Worms and its foul crime lord Lady Proxima -- where he’s reunited with his longtime sweetheart, Qi’ra. After a deal gone bad, Han absconded with a vial of the precious hyperfuel called coaxium. Worth 600 credits, it could buy Han and Qi’ra’s transport offworld.

Before they can make their escape, Proxima’s goons apprehend Han. Hauled before the serpentine gangster, the young thief tries to explain himself. With Proxima not buying his excuses, Han produces a rock -- claiming it to be a thermal detonator -- and throws it ceilingward, shattering a pane of glass. Sunlight streams in, burning the wretched Proxima, and Han and Qi’ra slip away in the ensuing chaos.

They race through the Corellian streets, eventually losing Proxima’s thugs and arriving at Coronet Spaceport. Exhilarated but nervous, Han hands Qi’ra a pair of golden chance cubes. “For luck?” she asks. “Damn right,” he tells her.

They’re not free yet, however. The Empire maintains a strong presence at the station, and Lady Proxima’s enforcers aren’t far behind. While stormtroopers and Proxima’s thugs sweep the area for Han and Qi’ra, the young runaways bribe an emigration agent with the stolen coaxium. Han darts through the checkpoint, but the White Worm goons seize Qi’ra. The security door slams shut between them. “I’ll come back!” Han cries as she’s pulled away.

Shellshocked and still on the run, Han approaches an Imperial recruitment post. He wants to be a pilot, he tells the officer. When asked his name -- who his people are -- Han says he has no one. “Han… Solo,” the agent says, typing the name into his console.

Three years later, after being discharged from the Imperial Academy on Carida, young Solo finds himself on Mimban. In the midst of a confused, mud-drenched invasion, Han is reprimanded for questioning his superior officers’ orders.

Solo encounters a small squad of infantry that he suspects aren’t soldiers at all, but rather thieves. In fact, they’re here to steal equipment for a job, and Han wants in. Named Val, Rio, and led by Tobias Beckett, they’re uninterested in having Han as a tagalong; instead, they turn him in as a deserter. He’s quickly thrown into a pit to be fed to “the Beast.”

The Beast, it turns out, is a towering, starved Wookiee. The two prisoners fight viciously in the muck, and just when it looks like the furry creature might end him, Solo speaks in the Wookiee’s native tongue, giving him pause. Together, they hatch a plan: pretending to pummel Solo, the Wookiee will knock loose the cage ceiling’s support column and give them an opening to freedom.

Their ruse works, and the two escapees make it topside. Chained together by the ankle, Han convinces his new ally to run to a nearby landing platform, where he hopes to catch up with an AT-hauler commandeered by Beckett’s crew. While Val is hesitant to let them aboard, Beckett decides to go back and bring them on as help for their next big job.

Together, the crew heads to the snowy, mountainous world of Vandor. Han asks the Wookiee his name, and the reply comes in the form of a roar: Chewbacca. “You’re gonna need a nickname ’cause I ain’t saying that every time,” says Solo. Later, Beckett briefs them on the next job; they’re here to hit a conveyex train and steal its large shipment of coaxium.

At night, Han tells his story. All he wants is to buy a starship and go back for the girl he loves. During their exchanges, Beckett tosses Han a gift of sorts: a modified DL-44 blaster.

While Val preps explosives to derail the train, Rio flies the AT-hauler low above the conveyex. Han, Chewie, and Beckett board the fast-moving train and head toward the freight car full of coaxium. They run into some Imperial range troopers along the way, however, and blasterfire is exchanged.

While Rio gets into position to haul the score away, he ponders his retirement plans; perhaps he’ll open a cantina somewhere. “Somewhere warm but not too warm, ya know?” he says. But the crew’s worst fears are realized when the Cloud-Riders, a nomadic gang of swoop pirates led by the mysterious Enfys Nest, arrives to sabotage the heist. Tragically, both Val and Rio lose their lives in the high-speed scuffle. Han, showcasing his impressive piloting skills, takes command of the ship and maneuvers it out of harm's way. His decision to drop the cargo, however, does not please the distraught Beckett.

Losing the coaxium has left them indebted to the man who hired Beckett for the job: Dryden Vos, a ruthless, high-ranking member of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. Solo and Chewie tell Beckett they’re in for one last score. “If you come with me and show your face -- if they don’t kill you -- you’re in this life for good,” Beckett says.

Aboard Vos’s luxury star yacht, a Kalevalan vessel called the First Light, Beckett instructs Han and Chewie not to mingle. “These people are not your friends, and they’re never gonna be,” he says.

Elsewhere aboard the ship, Dryden employs an energy-infused Kyuzo petar to execute Vandor’s regional governor.

Han feels a hand on his shoulder, and turns to find a familiar face: Qi’ra’s. Stunned, he can think of nothing to say, but embraces her. She greets him with an enormous smile.

In Dryden’s private study, Han, Chewie, and Beckett bargain for their lives. Han has a plan: The spice mines of Kessel are also home to a rich source of unrefined coaxium; he can fly the hyperfuel to Savareen for processing. Its value will more than make up for what was lost to Enfys Nest’s marauders.

Qi’ra says she knows of a fast ship; if anyone’s capable of making the Kessel Run with raw coaxium aboard, it’ll do the trick. She leads Han, Chewie, and Beckett to a lodge in the mountains of Vandor -- a haven for card players, smugglers, and spacers.

Lando Calrissian -- the pilot Qi’ra’s eager to hire for his ship, the Millennium Falcon -- is found in his usual spot: at the head of a card table, playing Corellian Spike sabacc. Han, wanting to win the freighter for himself and finally keep the promise he made to Qi’ra long ago, challenges Lando to a game, bluffing all the while. Calrissian, not one to be outdone, even if it means cheating occasionally, pulls an extra card from his sleeve. “Full sabacc,” he declares.

After cheating his way to victory, Lando agrees to come along on the Kessel job. But first he has to retrieve his copilot, an eccentric but exceedingly clever droid designated L3-37, who holds a strong belief in droid rights -- and who Lando claims holds the best navigational database in the galaxy.

Outside, at one of the lodge’s landing pads, sits the Millennium Falcon, a Corellian YT-1300 freighter and Lando’s prized possession. When the crew discovers it’s been impounded, Lando accepts a lesser cut of the Kessel take in exchange for Beckett removing the restraints from the ship’s landing gear.

Making the jump to Kessel is no straightforward trip, Lando explains. They’ll have to plot a course through the Si’Klaata Cluster and then navigate the Akkadese Maelstrom, a supermassive cluster of gas and debris.

Beckett bests Chewbacca in a game of dejarik at the Falcon’s holotable. “There’s a lesson to be learned here,” he tells Chewie. Then Han approaches, asking if they’ve seen Qi’ra. With a smile, Beckett says, “People are predictable.”

In the closet where Lando keeps his collection of fine capes, Han finds Qi’ra trying one of them on and playfully admiring herself in the mirror. Han asks what she’s been up to since escaping Corellia, and she tells him, “I’m not sure we have that kinda time.” Their feelings still strong for one another, they manage one passionate kiss before Beckett comes along and interrupts them.

Beckett tells Han that Qi’ra is not to be trusted. “Wanna know how I’ve survived as long as I have?” says Beckett. “I trust no one. Assume everyone will betray you.”

In the Falcon’s cockpit, L3 asks Qi’ra what she’s going to do about Han’s obvious affection for her, in light of the Crimson Dawn brand on her wrist. The droid claims that she herself is the subject of similar feelings from Lando, but she does not reciprocate. “We’re just not compatible,” she says.

On Kessel, the crew is greeted by Quay Tolsite, the Pyke Syndicate’s head of mining operations on the planet. Qi’ra explains that she’s the deputy assistant of a made-up vice admiral within some equally fictional trade-monetization agency. She’s here, she tells Tolsite, to trade slaves for spice.

Luckily, the Pyke falls for their deception. Qi’ra turns toward the two bound “slaves” -- Han and Chewie -- and places something in Solo’s hand: the pair of dice he gave her for good luck three years prior. Tolsite leads them inside the mining facility to work out a mutually agreeable trade. In an elevator, Han and Chewie disarm their captors. Elsewhere Qi’ra dispatches Tolsite using the martial art of Teras Kasi.

Meanwhile, Beckett and L3-37 stir up some trouble of their own in the facility’s control center, taking out a handful of Mining Guild agents. After L3 removes a restraining bolt from one of the servant droids on duty, the astromech proceeds to free the rest of the ops center’s droids one by one. With the press of a button, one of the droids unlocks the shackles of all the slaves in the mines below. The freed prisoners -- some of them Wookiees -- stage a full-on revolt in the midst of the heist.

After Han and Chewie haul the coaxium onto the surface, the Pykes’ armored guards open fire on the Falcon and her crew from the rocks above. Lando tosses Han a blaster, and they join Beckett in fighting back the facility’s security forces. “Rebellion!” L3 cries, triumphant. Once it’s time to take off, however, L3 is caught in the crossfire, her inner circuits sparking as she crumples to the ground. Lando carries his beloved co-pilot’s upper body onto the Falcon as L3’s systems begin to fail. Qi’ra tosses an explosive at the remaining assailants and orders Han and Beckett to get aboard.

This time, as the Falcon flies along the traditional Kessel Run route, Solo and his allies are met with an Imperial blockade. “Trust me,” Han says, “there’s no way they’re gonna waste a TIE fighter chasing down a little rinky-dink freighter.” As if on cue, half a dozen TIEs pour from the belly of the Star Destroyer.

Han offers a solution: flying directly into the Maelstrom itself. Lando immediately protests the idea, but Han reminds him of something he’d said earlier -- that L3-37, now completely offline, contains the galaxy’s best navigational database. Solo suggests they try uploading her neural core into the Falcon’s navicomputer. “Could we?” Qi’ra asks. “Theoretically,” says Lando. With Chewie as his co-pilot and Beckett on the ventral gun turret, Han takes out the remaining TIEs while Qi’ra plugs L3’s database into the cockpit.

Soaring through the icy darkness of the Maelstrom, the Falcon happens upon the Maw, an immense gravity well. As Han prepares to maneuver away from it, one of many colossal eyeballs appears before the forward viewport. The creature -- a summa-verminoth -- pursues the freighter with its mammoth tentacles, a violent storm crackling all around them. To lose the beast, Solo does the unthinkable, heading directly toward the swirling Maw. Caught in its gravity, the monster perishes. To avoid suffering the same fate, Beckett injects a single drop of unrefined coaxium into the Falcon’s hyperdrive at Han's command, and the freighter jumps away just seconds before certain destruction.

Solo brings the battered Falcon to rest on the shores of Savareen, and the crew delivers the coaxium to the locals for processing. “Just did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs,” Han brags to one of the refinery’s technicians. Chewbacca growls in protest. “Not if you round down, buddy,” Han tells him.

Thinking of their shared dream back home on Corellia, Han asks Qi’ra what she’ll do next, now that the job is done. “It can’t happen,” she whispers. If they run off together, Crimson Dawn will hunt them both. “I’m an outlaw,” he tells her. She chuckles, knowing what Han really is: “You are the good guy.”

Qi’ra, Chewie, Han, and Beckett take shelter at an open-air cantina on the beach, hoping for a drink to celebrate their success. But a mechanical voice calls to them from the sands outside: “Beckett.” Beyond the saloon entrance, Enfys Nest and her Cloud-Riders stand ready, far outnumbering them.

Han tries bluffing; he points to the Millennium Falcon and explains that 30 hired guns are aboard, just waiting for him to give a signal. Then, with Lando at the helm, the Falcon ascends to the skies, leaving them behind. When Qi’ra proposes a nonviolent course of action, Nest unmasks, revealing the face beneath: that of a no-nonsense young woman. “I need a drink,” Enfys says.

Enfys Nest explains the true purpose of the Cloud-Riders: to fight back against the injustices of the galaxy’s five major crime syndicates, including Crimson Dawn. “The war’s just begun,” she tells Beckett and his crew. Privately, Han urges Beckett to surrender the coaxium to the Cloud-Riders in exchange for help killing Dryden Vos, thereby gaining back their freedom. Beckett sees through him, adding, “Maybe get your girlfriend back while we’re at it.” The older gunslinger is already thinking about the next big job, one last score, and urges Solo to come along. But, in spite of himself, Han chooses to be the good guy, and they go their separate ways.

Back aboard Dryden’s yacht, Qi’ra, Han, and Chewie present the crime boss with large crates filled with hyperfuel canisters. Han claims that Beckett died on the job to explain his absence. Still, Vos eyes Qi’ra with suspicion.

Han mentions that he and Chewie would be honored to work for Dryden again, brings up the matter of payment, and makes ready to leave. “Show me what you’ve brought me first,” says Dryden. Han warns that coaxium is volatile, explosive stuff. He hands a canister to Vos, who examines it carefully. “It’s magnificent,” Dryden says. “It looks exactly like the real thing.” Vos is somehow aware of their deception.

Enraged by their betrayal, Dryden calls his “associate” into the room. Beckett hasn’t left Savareen just yet, as it happens; he chose to inform Vos of Han’s plan to aid the Cloud-Riders and deliver fake cargo to Crimson Dawn. “I told you, ‘Don’t trust anybody.’ Am I wrong about that?” Beckett reasons. Beckett draws a blaster and explains that Han, once again, was all too predictable. But so was Beckett. Outside, Dryden’s private army walks into an ambush, and Enfys and her allies swiftly defeat them.

With Dryden’s security forces out of the picture, Beckett seizes the opportunity to steal the real coaxium -- the canisters Vos believed were fakes -- for himself, forcing Chewie to carry the load. As Chewie hauls the cargo onto the elevator with Beckett, Han, Qi’ra, and Dryden brace for a fight to the death. The crime boss quickly retrieves his pair of lethal Kyuzo petars and battles Han, while Qi'ra waits. She finally enters the fray, knocking her old flame to the floor, and tells Han she’s sorry as she points a blade at his chest. Taking Dryden off-guard, Qi’ra turns to attack Vos, engaging in a melee. It ends with her landing a killing strike with one of Dryden’s own glowing petars.

Han and Qi’ra share one last kiss before he goes to check on Chewbacca. Wanting to take care of some business, Qi'ra tells Han, "I'm right behind you." She takes the signet ring from Dryden’s finger, steels herself, and makes a call on the First Light’s holoprojector. The leader of Crimson Dawn appears before her in ghostly blue form. “Bring the ship and come to me on Dathomir,” he instructs her. The tattooed being ignites a lightsaber that illuminates the red in his eyes and face, revealing his true identity. “You and I will be working much more closely from now on,” says Maul, the former Sith.

On the sandy shores of Savareen, Han catches up with Beckett and greets with a pointed blaster. Just as Solo’s mentor offers to impart one final lesson, Han pulls the trigger of his DL-44. Then, without a trace of malice, Han goes to Beckett’s side and holds his hand as he dies.

From a slatted viewport, Qi’ra watches Han until the First Light departs the planet on its way to Dathomir. As promised, Han and Chewie deliver the coaxium to the Cloud-Riders. Enfys Nest asks him to join their nascent rebellion, but Solo isn’t ready for that kind of devotion. “Maybe someday,” Enfys says, “you’ll feel different.”

Han tracks Lando to a gambling den deep in the jungle, eager for a rematch after their ill-fated sabacc game on Vandor. Han pretends to be furious with Lando, at first, before wrapping him in a friendly embrace. Surreptitiously, he swipes the duplicate card -- a green sylop -- from the clip in Lando’s sleeve. At the card table, as Lando grows puzzled by the missing card, Han plays his hand: full sabacc. And so the Millennium Falcon belongs to Solo. Once aboard, Han and Chewie set a course for the desert planet Tatooine, a pair of golden dice hanging overhead, and slip into the endless blue of hyperspace.