Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki are Soul Reapers, soldiers trusted with ushering the souls of the dead from the World of the Living to the afterlife realm known as Soul Society and with fighting Hollows, monstrous lost souls, white scary face with big hole in the chest, invisible to ordinary human eyes who can harm both ghosts and humans. After defeating a Hollow in a local park, unidentified ghost-like spirits begin to appear, before a mysterious Soul Reaper named Senna appears and destroys the spirits. Ichigo and Rukia confront her, but she refuses to answer any questions and leaves. Ichigo follows Senna, while Rukia returns to the Soul Society in search of answers.
Soul Reapers of the 10th Division—led by its captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya and vice-captain List of Soul Reapers in Bleach#Rangiku Matsumoto—are sent to escort the "King's Seal". The rare artifact is stolen during transport by the deviated Soul Reaper Sōjirō Kusaka and two girls known as Ying and Yang. Hitsugaya seems to recognize the Soul Reaper, who wounds him and leaves, and abandons his post to pursue the man and leaves his squad behind to fend for themselves. Later, the Soul Society suspects Hitsugaya of treason, orders his immediate capture, and puts his whole squad under house arrest.
In the Soul Society, Soul Reaper scientist Mayuri Kurotsuchi is attacked in his laboratory by a pair of mysterious siblings wielding a scythe that erases his memories. In a frightened panic, Kurotsuchi damages one of his machines, causing a massive spirit energy explosion that covers much of Soul Society, killing or freezing many Soul Reapers. Rukia Kuchiki is the next to be attacked by the siblings, erasing her memories and those of everybody that has memories of her, and is carried away to Soul Society's Rukon District by the siblings.
The film starts with a recap of Bleach (season 14) in which Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki's battle against one of his nemesis, List of Hollows in Bleach#Espada, and transforms into an incredibly powerful and uncontrollable Hollow. Some time later, Soul Reapers Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai arrive in the human world to inspect a strange occurrence, though they remain vague about what. Shortly after, powerful masked spirits attack Ichigo and his friends at school. When the mask of one of the spirits breaks, the gates of Hell appear and a Kushanāda—one of the guardians of Hell—impales the unmasked spirit, dragging him into Hell. It is revealed that the masked spirits are Sinners and they hide their faces to avoid being dragged back to Hell. During the battle, Ichigo's two sisters, List of Bleach characters#Karin Kurosaki and Yuzu Kurosaki are attacked by Shuren, the leader of the Sinners. Ichigo manages to return in time to attack Shuren, but is unable to defeat him. Kokutō, a Sinner not allied with Shuren, rescues Karin, but Shuren manages to depart with Yuzu. Kokutō offers to assist Ichigo by showing him the route into Hell, and Rukia, Renji, and Uryū Ishida decide to join the quest.