This young girl, sometimes called Gigi in regional versions, wears a distinctive penguin costume given by her now-deceased father. After her father's disappearance, she lives with her grandfather and endures bullying from children who mock her conviction that penguins can fly, a belief rooted in her father's stories. During an attempt to fly prompted by this teasing, she falls and discovers a golden feathered wing alongside a penguin-shaped capsule containing a robotic cat toy.

The robotic cat transforms into a goblin named Chaley, who guides her to a hidden store brimming with penguin-themed items. Chaley mistakenly identifies her as a prophesied "flightless bird" destined to save his realm from the entity Buccaboo and his henchmen, who are destroying the goblin village. Initially resistant to this role and expressing doubt about her capabilities, she becomes suspicious of Buccaboo's lead enforcer, Zammie, after an encounter and decides to investigate Buccaboo's motives with Chaley.

Their investigation uncovers that Zammie is a fallen angel, stripped of one wing and exploited by Buccaboo for his celestial powers, corrupting him into malevolence. She helps Zammie escape Buccaboo's lair and vows to retrieve his missing wing to restore his angelic nature and defeat Buccaboo. Achieving true flight becomes essential. Drawing on memories of her father, she spiritually summons him; he grants her flight, enabling her to recover the wing, aided also by her grandfather and divine entities represented by a statue from her world.

Following Buccaboo's defeat and Zammie's return to heaven, she travels home only to find her grandfather has been added to the statue. Simultaneously, the fantastical elements vanish: the Penguin Store disappears, and Chaley reverts to his inert toy form.