Ash and his friends are continuing their journey when it begins to rain. While looking for shelter, they stumble across an old house in the middle of nowhere. Believing it to be deserted, they go inside. To their surprise, Ash's Pikachu is found playing with what seems to be another Pikachu. However, this Pikachu's face is weird, which leads to Brock thinking it is a new kind of Pikachu. Ash tries to capture it, but a girl dressed as Ash appears and stops him. The girl introduces herself as Duplica and reveals that the Pikachu is actually her Ditto. Upon reading Ditto's entry in the Pokédex and hearing that it can't learn any other attacks besides Transform, Ash becomes unconvinced of its usefulness in a battle, so Duplica challenges him to a battle. Ash chooses Bulbasaur and tries to attack using Razor Leaf, but Duplica's Ditto Transforms and wins using a Vine Whip attack.
Later, Duplica explains that she wants to be a Ditto Master and a star, but she cannot because her Ditto is unable to mirror other Pokémon's faces. Whenever it transforms it still has the face of a Ditto, much to the disappointment of her audiences. Then Team Rocket appear and try to steal Ditto, in the hope that they can get it to transform into Dratini and present it to their boss as a legendary Pokémon. Using Weezing's SmokeScreen, they are able to escape with Ditto.
Once they are away from the house, Jessie and James try to test Ditto's power by having it turn into a Dratini from a picture in a book that they have, at first. But then, Jessie stops James and says that they should have a little bit of fun before handing Ditto over to the boss. She asks Ditto to transform into what a certain boy would look like if he were an adult, and pulls out a photo frame. James and Meowth then try to get Jessie to show the picture to them, but she refuses. Ditto agrees, and then a picture of a man with blue hair shows up with a Ditto's face. Now angry, Jessie commands Ditto to once again become a Dratini; she points to the picture of the Pokémon in the book. Instead, Ditto transforms into a book.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Misty, Brock, and Ash are trying to cheer Duplica up. Ash then states about how a Trainer decides how a Ditto would transform. Pidgeotto and Zubat, who were on guard, return with news that they saw Ditto. Ash and friends then decide to go and save Ditto.
Team Rocket, still trying to get the Ditto to transform correctly, try to get it to change into Meowth. They then yell at Ditto because its face doesn't look like Meowth's after it transformed. They are angered when it is unable to change its face from its own. Eventually, they are able to threaten it into transforming correctly.
Team Rocket is happy that Ditto can now transform correctly, and Meowth then asks Ditto to transform into Dratini, but they are then interrupted by Ash's voice. When Jessie and James hear this and turn around, spotlights appear over Ash, Brock, Misty and Duplica, dressed in Team Rocket uniforms. The four of them then say their variation of the Team Rocket's motto, much to the irritation of the real Team Rocket. Misty notes it was great to do the whole thing and Ash notes he had figured out that the reason why Team Rocket say their motto a lot was because it's fun. Duplica suggests they should all become actors and when they have a good laugh at this, Jessie and James become even more angry at this. Jessie states that their organization is not something to be made fun of, and also tells them that if they are going to imitate them, they should do it right. James then states to Duplica she got one part of the motto wrong. The group demands Ditto back, but they are surprised when they see two identical Meowth. However, Duplica is happy that Team Rocket was able to get her Ditto to transform correctly. Team Rocket try to trick them by giving them the real Meowth and escaping in their balloon with Ditto. But Duplica says she can tell that Meowth isn't her Ditto, even though it looks identical to the other Meowth. She throws Meowth at the balloon, causing Team Rocket to drop Ditto. Duplica tells it to transform into a cannon and fire Pikachu at the balloon. After being hit by Pikachu's ThunderShock, the balloon bursts and Team Rocket are blasted off again.
Now that Ditto can transform perfectly, Duplica reopens her theater for performances. She thanks Ash and his friends and they leave, with Ash hoping to catch his own Ditto someday.
The episode ends with Team Rocket attempting to put a Dratini suit onto Meowth, who scratches them.
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