Beerus, the God of Destruction, is awaken from his decades-long nap by his retainer Whis with important news: Frieza has been felled by a Saiyan warrior, a most-likely candidate for a Super Saiyan God, a being Beerus learned of in a prophecy. Thus, Beerus and Whis seek out the Saiyan warrior, Son Goku, who is training on King Kai's planet. Beerus challenges Goku to a sparring match, hoping to see if he is the Super Saiyan God. Unfortunately for Goku, he stands no chance against Beerus: even at Super Saiyan 3, the God of Destruction lays him out like a bath mat. Disappointed, Beerus makes his way towards Earth, the one location in the universe where Saiyans live, in the hopes of finding a better challenge.
On Earth, Bulma is celebrating her birthday, with the main attraction at her party being a game of bingo where the winner received all seven Dragon Balls at once. Vegeta is given forewarning from King Kai of Beerus's arrival. Knowing firsthand how frightening Beerus can be (since his father. the King of Saiyans, was made to kneel before him), Vegeta already knows to do whatever it takes to appease the God of Destruction in order to spare the Earth and his loved ones a grisly fate. Meanwhile, Emperor Pilaf, Shu, and Mai infiltrate the party with the hopes of obtaining the Dragon Balls for themselves, but are discovered. They are mistaken for children, however, due to a botched wish to Shenron for youth making them a bit too young. Mai tries to shoot Gohan with a gun, and the deflected bullet hits Videl in the leg. Dende is on hand to heal the wound, thankfully, and makes a startling discovery: Videl is pregnant! He agrees to keep it secret for the time being.
Beerus and Whis arrive on Earth, and Vegeta proceeds to pull out all the stops to appease him, humiliating himself in the process. All of his efforts are for naught, sadly, when Beerus attempts to try a sample of pudding, only for a greedy Majin Buu to eat all of the pudding. The other Z-Warriors attempt to fend off Beerus to keep him from destroying the Earth, but are soundly defeated. Bulma, herself, becomes cross with Beerus for ruining her birthday party, and slaps him across the face, only to be knocked out. Vegeta flies into a rage and, for a brief moment, becomes more powerful than even Goku and manages to overpower Beerus, only to be defeated himself.
Goku appears before Beerus can destroy the Earth and makes a proposal: summoning Shenron and asking him to summon the Super Saiyan God. Shenron, sadly, cannot summon the Super Saiyan God, for one does not exist. Instead, he tells the story of how the Super Saiyan God originally came into being: five Saiyans of pure hearts poured their energy into one Saiyan, and their combined might caused the one Saiyan to attain god-like power.
Goku attempts to become a Super Saiyan God with the aid of Gohan, Goten, Vegeta, and Trunks, but their power proves insufficient: they were missing one Saiyan. Videl takes the opportunity to announce to Gohan that she was carrying his quarter-Saiyan child, news that Gohan is overjoyed at. The power of this unborn child helps to finally allow Goku to ascend to Super Saiyan God: his frame becomes more slender than average, his hair and eyes turn bright red, and his power level becomes so immense that his friends can't even sense it.
Goku and Beerus proceed to have a rematch, with Goku now able to fight the God of Destruction on equal footing. Even though he enjoys his newfound power, however, he also feels dissatisfied with it, since he couldn't attain it by himself and needed the help of his allies to achieve it.
Eventually, however, the power dissipates, and Goku returns to his base form, and is overpowered once more, eventually conceding the fight. Beerus is satisfied by Goku's efforts, and proceeds to creating an energy sphere to destroy the Earth, since Goku admitted defeat. Goku holds back the sphere, and eventually manages to reattain his Super Saiyan God form for long enough to absorb the energy sphere, sparing the Earth.
Goku and Beerus return to Goku's family and the Z-Warriors. Beerus then declares he will destroy the Earth, only to destroy a small rock formation, having expended the near entirety of his energy during his fight with Goku, and promises to return to Earth after a nap to finish the job. He congratulates Goku before leaving, declaring him the second strongest opponent he ever had the pleasure of fighting, after his retainer Whis.
