As Miles O'Brien joins in the reconstruction of Cardassia's infrastructure, his wife Keiko spearheads the planet's difficult agricultural renewal. On Andor, biological necessity clashes with personal ethics as Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane returns home to the planet he forswore, to face not only the consequences of his choices, but a clandestine plan to alter the very nature of his kind.
Upheaval threatens to destroy the civilization on Trill as Ezri Dax must uncover millennia of lies and deceptions to uncover the truth about the planet's origins, while on the planet Bajor, conflicting visions of Bajor's role in the Federation divide the planet's inhabitants, in the second of a three-volume series examining six alien civilizations.
Quark's profit-driven homeworld is rocked with scandal as shocking allegations involving his brother's first wife threaten to overthrow Rom as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance. Odo investigates his kind's true motives for sending a hundred infant changelings out into the galaxy.