Niska finally gets his revenge on Mal when his men find him and Wash on a planet. Nothing would please Niska more than to see them suffer right in front of him. Back at Serenity, Zoe and the crew decide to mount a daring rescue to get their friends back.

After a flashback to Zoe's and Mal's days in the wars six years previous, we cut to the modern day where the Serenity crew is running a salvage operation on a deserted ship and are forced to flee with the cargo when the Alliance show up.