Gul Dukat rules Terok Nor and all of Bajor with an iron (but compassionate) fist. When Bajorans inside and outside of his labor camps begin dying of a new disease, his work force is effected and his management looks sloppy. Bajoran rebels, sure that the disease is a Cardassian creation, begin striking back at his forces with increasingly desperate measures.
But Dukat has an even bigger problem: although it seems medically impossible, the same disease that is killing Bajorans may have begun to kill Cardassians as well. Dr Katherine Pulaski of the USS "Enterprise" is allowed to work on Terok Nor to study the virus, which bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus that ravaged Archaria III two years before. But will she be able to find an answer before an ailing Gul Dukat is forced to take the ultimate precaution to protect Cardassia: withdraw from the station and destroy the entire planet of Bajor?