Ash and co. are traveling towards Pewter City and Ash's next challenge at the Battle Pyramid. Brock decides to stop for lunch. Max offers to gather some wood for water, and Ash and May want to get water. Ash and May approach a sparkling lake. May has never since such a beautiful lake before. A Pokémon then inches its way past the lake. May sees it. The Pokémon notices that it has been seen, and it stands completely still. Ash looks it up in his Pokédex. The Pokémon is a Sudowoodo. Ash wonders why the Sudowoodo is golden. He decides to capture it. Pikachu shocks Sudowoodo with a Thunderbolt. Then Ash throws an empty Pokéball at Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo deflects the Pokéball right back at Ash's head. Then it runs off.

Ash and co. walk into town. Brock doesn't believe that Ash and May saw a golden Sudowoodo since they do not exist. Max is starving. They approach a restaurant and decide to eat there. When they enter the restaurant, they see a bunch of rough-looking people. On the wall is a poster advertising another Pokémon contest. Brock says that the contest is along the way to Pewter City, so they can stop by it. May wished she captured the golden Sudowoodo. It would score big points for her. The group of people in the restaurant hear May talk about the golden Sudowoodo. They all corner Ash and co. One of the men says that they have been trying to capture the golden Sudowoodo for awhile now. They say that there is gold around the mountains, and any Pokémon that eats the gold turns golden themselves. They all want to hear where Ash and May have seen the Sudowoodo. A boy near the exit uses hand motion to get Max's attention. Ash and co. crawl out of the mob and they run out of the restaurant.

Team Rocket is on top of the restaurant building. Jessie thinks there really is a golden Sudowoodo. She wants to capture it. The boy leads Ash and co. to a house. He shuts the door and closes the blinds. The boy's name is Kinen. Ash and co. introduce themselves to Kinen. Kinen tells Ash and co. that he owns the Sudowoodo. Kinen gets out a picture of him and the golden Sudowoodo. May is a bit sad that the Sudowoodo has a trainer because it would've been perfect for her upcoming contest. Kinen tells them that he last saw Sudowoodo near the lake. That's the same place where Ash and May saw the Sudowoodo. Team Rocket are listening to the conversation from the top of the house. Meowth thinks the golden Sudowoodo would be the perfect gift for the boss.

Kinen explains to the group that even though Sudowoodo are rock types, his Sudowoodo is strong against water Pokémon. Max asks Kinen how he got the golden Sudowoodo. Kinen doesn't even know himself. Brock has a theory that it might've become golden because it ate some of the gold. Ash thinks they should help Kinen find his Sudowoodo. Kinen tells them that he doesn't need help, but Ash and co. decide to help anyways.

Team Rocket have arrived at the lake. They don't see the golden Sudowoodo yet. Jessie says they need bait to attract the golden Sudowoodo. She imagines a story about how she throws a normal Sudowoodo in the lake. An angel comes out with a golden Sudowoodo and asks Jessie if the Sudowoodo belongs to her. Jessie is honest, and the angel rewards Jessie with the golden Sudowoodo becuase of that. However, they need a normal Sudowoodo to throw into the lake. Jessie thinks they should dress up Mime Jr, but James totally disagrees with that. So they decide to dress up Meowth as a normal Sudowoodo.

Suddenly, the golden Sudowoodo pops out from under the lake. Team Rocket is happy that they found the golden Sudowoodo. Now they have to capture it. Meowth dresses Jessie up in a diver's outfit. Then Jessie jumps into the water. When she comes back up, she has the golden Sudowoodo caught in a net. James and Meowth are happy to see the golden Sudowoodo caught. Ash and co. arrive at the lake. They see Team Rocket and the Sudowoodo. Ash demands Team Rocket to release the Sudowoodo. James and Meowth run so they don't blast off. Jessie is left behind. The Sudowoodo jumps out of the net. Kinen takes out his Pokéball to call Sudowoodo back. When Kinen tries to return Sudowoodo back, Sudowoodo dodges the red light from the Pokéball. The red light shocks Jessie, and Team Rocket runs away.

It appears that the Sudowoodo doesn't even want to come back with Kinen. Brock has an idea. He sends out Bonsly. Because Bonsly is the pre-evolved form of Sudowoodo, Bonsly might be able to talk to Sudowoodo. Bonsly walks up to Sudowoodo, and the two Pokémon begin talking to each other. Sudowoodo doesn't want to go back with Kinen, and it runs away. Kinen runs after Sudowoodo. Brock thought his idea would work.

Kinen slips and falls. Ash and co. run up to Kinen and help him back up. They ask Kinen what he did to make Sudowoodo mad. Kinen can't hold his secret in anymore. He tells them that he was doing an experiment with Sudowoodo because it hates water. When he used his machine, his Sudowoodo became a golden color. Brock can't blame the Sudowoodo for being mad at Kinen. Kinen found a solution to change Sudowoodo back to its normal color, but he needs Sudowoodo lured back into the machine. Ash and co. want to help with that.

The golden Sudowoodo steps out of its hiding place. From above is Team Rocket. They begin to shoot a many nets at the Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo runs and heads into town. It runs right into the restaurant from before. The men stare at the Sudowoodo. Then they begin to chase after it. Ash and co. hears the Sudowoodo coming their way. Kinen yells to Sudowoodo to come with him because he found a solution. Sudowoodo ignores Kinen and still runs away from the mob. Team Rocket is above in their balloon. Meowth presses a button, and two things come out of their balloon. Sudowoodo hides behind a building, avoiding the people. The two things that came out of net forms into a giant robot machine. The machine corners the Sudowoodo. The machine's arms reach out to grab Sudowoodo, but Sudowoodo manages to dodge it.

Team Rocket's machine corners Sudowoodo again. Ash and co. walk up to Team Rocket. Pikachu thunderbolts the machine, but nothing happens. The machine is immune to all electric attacks. The machine tries to grab Sudowoodo again, but Kinen comes and blocks the hand from reaching Sudowoodo with a shovel. With the next arm, the machine punches Kinen out of the way. The machine is about to take down Sudowoodo again, but Kinen is now holding one of the machine's legs. This is preventing the machine from going any closer to Sudowoodo. Ash tells Kinen to move out of the way, but Kinen wants to save Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo realizes that Kinen cares, and it headbutts the machine. The machine falls down. Kinen is glad that Sudowoodo saved him. The machine gets back up on its feet. Sudowoodo hits the machine with Brick Break. The machine explodes. Then Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, and Team Rocket blasts off again.

Kinen deeply apologizes to Sudowoodo for everything he has done. Sudowoodo accepts the apology. Suddenly, the townspeople begin to chase Ash and co. because they want the Sudowoodo. Ash and co. runs into Kinen's house and avoids the townspeople. Kinen puts Sudowoodo in his machine and pulls a lever. Sudowoodo is turned back into its normal color. They walk out of the house. The townspeople are still looking for the golden Sudowoodo, but it doesn't exist anymore. Things will be a lot easier now that Sudowoodo has turned back to normal.

Ash and co. begin to say their farewells. Kinen wishes May the best of luck at her Pokémon contest. Then they wave goodbye and leave.