The Luminous Fairies and Mothra

During a typhoon, a ship called the Genjiro-Maru is wreaked off the coast of an South Pacific atoll called Infant Island, which was used as a nuclear testing site by Rolisica. Four survivors are rescued and they claim that they were kept alive duo to a special broth that made them immune to the islands radiation given to them by the natives.

A Japanese-Rolisican expedition is formed. Among the members of the team are Japanese linguist Shinji Chujo and Clark Nelson, a wealthy but mysterious man from Rolisica. As they land on the island, Chujo is attacked by a vampire plant but is saved by a glowing 60 cm tall woman. Nelson tries to capture the small woman but the natives intimidate him not to. The expedition returns to Japan, where Chujo tells of his experiences to a reporter named Zenichiro Fukuda.

Zenichiro decides to go to the island alone, and while there he learns from the four tiny fairies, calling themselves, the Ailenas and the natives the legend of Infant Island. In the beginning, the world was created by two deities named Ajima the god of darkness and Ajiko the goddess of light. The god and goddess conceive a giant glowing egg, then they give birth to a pair of humans, a male and a female who reproduced and populated the island. Finally, they conceive a clutch of smaller eggs which hatched into caterpillars that turned into moth's and flew away. This enraged Ajima who condemned all living things he created to die, then he ripped his own body into four pieces and perished. Brokenhearted, Ajiko also committed suicide by tearing her own body into four pieces and those pieces became four small immortal girls who are dedicated to serve Mothra. Zenichiro initially thinks the story to be a simple myth, but soon he sees for himself the huge egg in a secret underground temple.

However, the next morning, Nelson comes and kidnaps the fairies and then uses them to put on a show in Tokyo. Chujo protests this injustice alone as Zenichiro is still on the island. Nothing is done as Japan has just signed a treaty with Rolisica and doesn’t won’t to upset their relationship.

Chujo, long with his assistant, Michiko, while at one of Nelson’s consorts, notice the word Mothra continually appearing in the fairies song. Back on Infant Island, Zenichiro witnesses a huge larva, Mothra, hatching from the giant egg. A boat sent by Zenichiro’s paper picks him up and when he gets back to Japan.

Now back in Japan, Zenichiro teams up with Chujo and Michiko and the trio goes to see the four fairies who confirm what they suspect, Mothra is coming to rescue them and will cause great destruction. They make this knowledge known to the Japanese public as the country braces for Mothra’s arrival. A protest group, let by Michiko, is formed against Nelson to release the four fairies but he refuses to return them back to the island. As Mothra makes landfall, Nelson flees to Rolisica by plane with the fairies. Mothra trudges down the Keihin National Highway to Tokyo where it spins a cocoon around the Diet Building. Rolisica finally offers aid in the form of an atomic heat ray cannon, but the attack is ineffective. The cocoon hatches and a winged adult Mothra appears.

Mothra flies for Rolisica and battles a jet squadron in the skies above. In Rolisica, Nelson is still continuing his live stage show, but is shot by an angry member of the public. Chujo and his friends go to Rolisica to negotiate the release of the fairies back to Mothra, who had landed at an airport.

The four fairies run to Mothra and enter the monsters body through it’s eye and the giant moth flies off to Antarctica. Part of the frozen continent floats up into the sky with Mothra and the fairies and goes off into space and enters a “negative universe” but Mothra will continue to protect Infant Island if needed.

• Jerry Ito: A S'Wonderful Life (biography of the film's star, includes mention of the book)