The movie takes place in 2010 and follows a new mission to Jupiter, nine years after the mysterious events that occurred on the spaceship Discovery One in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The story begins with a Soviet cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov (played by Vladimir Murach), who lands on the moon of Jupiter, Europa, and discovers a strange monolith buried beneath the surface. This monolith is similar to the one found on the moon in the first film.