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By direct numerical simulations of the plane Couette flow (PCF) in a large computational domain, it is shown that an isolated turbulent band decays monotonically at low Reynolds numbers but experiences transient growth before the eventual relaminarization at moderate Reynolds numbers. The lower bound Reynolds number of the transient-growth regime is determined as 286. The width, length, and tilt angle of the isolated band structure are defined based on the disturbance kinetic energy in the mid-plane, and the geometric characteristics of the band can be described with a tilted rectangle. It is illustrated that before its eventual fragmentation, the isolated turbulent band decays in a style of longitudinal contraction, where the center, width, and tilt angle of the band keep almost constant but the band length contracts with a statistically constant velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]