When the Enterprise rescues a freighter with engine problems and is being drawn into a planets gravitational field, Picard gets more than he bargained for when it is discovered that the one planets inhabitants may be carrying a disease. The disease causes Picard to consider the Federation's Prime Directive and why it is necessary.

Captain Picard reflects on a missed liason at a Paris cafe years in his past when the Enterprise gets a distress call from a scientist who is experimenting with Time rifts and is married to the lady he was supposed to meet in Paris all those years ago.