While on a relief mission to a colony of the Norsai Republic, Rebecca Sullivan's shuttle is shot down, and she is taken prisoner by a Cardassian seeking to avenge a death in the family perpetrated by her former Maquis cell. Rebecca is soon rescued by soldiers of the Norsaian Liberation Front. But when she finds her saviors have not contacted the USS Lambda Paz, as they had claimed, she does some snooping around and learns of their plans to cause a major cataclysm that could claim many innocent lives.