Sheppard, McKay, Teyla and Ronon visit an oppressed, poverty-stricken village that sacrifices half of every harvest to a mysterious Lord Protector in a great tower — a tower that looks exactly like the central spire of Atlantis. In exchange for the farmers' tribute, the Lord Protector defends them from the Wraith with amazing weaponry.

Col. Sheppard's team is urgently summoned to M1K-177, where Maj. Lorne's team has been attacked. When Sheppard and his unit arrive, however, all they find is a burned building containing charred bodies: presumably, Lorne and his men. After returning to Atlantis, Sheppard and Weir are startled when Ladon Radim, a member of the Genii strike force that previously tried to attack the city, contacts them through the stargate. He claims that he wants to trade a ZPM in exchange for weapons to stage a military coup against Cowen, the ambitious Genii leader.