The episode follows three plot lines. In the first, Kira, Odo, and Cardassian ex-spy
Garak are advising Damar on guerrilla tactics to use against the Dominion. Kira has a tense relationship with Damar's second-in-command, Rusot, who disdains her tactical advice and distrusts her motives. En route to attempt to steal a Breen energy-dampening weapon so the Federation can reverse-engineer a defensive counter-measure, Damar receives word that his family has been executed by the Dominion. Kira responds to his outrage by reminding him that the Cardassians committed similar atrocities during the Bajoran occupation; Damar is visibly taken aback by the comparison. Kira later regrets her words, but Garak points out they may be what Damar needs to hear to dislodge his romanticized view of the Cardassian empire. They successfully steal a Dominion ship equipped with the Breen weapon, but Odo collapses as the illness overtakes him. Rusot tries to convince Damar to let him kill Kira and take the Breen weapon for Cardassia alone. Damar kills Rusot, giving up his vision of restoring the old Cardassia and instead choosing to try to create a better one. In the second plotline, Gowron has been sending General
Martok on doomed offensives against the Dominion.
Worf, a Klingon member of Starfleet, suspects that Gowron's strategies are meant to humiliate Martok, whom Gowron sees as a political threat, regardless of the consequences for the Klingon Empire. He urges Martok to challenge Gowron, but Martok refuses to consider the idea. Lt.
Ezri Dax points out to Worf that if men as honorable as himself tolerate corruption at the highest levels, there is no hope for the Klingon Empire. During a meeting in which Gowron presents another suicidal plan of attack, Worf calls out Gowron as dishonorable. This leads to a duel in which Gowron at first seems to have the upper hand; he breaks Worf's
bat'leth and throws him through a glass display board. When Gowron approaches to finish him off, Worf fatally stabs him with a piece of the broken bat'leth. By Klingon law, this makes Worf the new Chancellor. Worf refuses the robe of office and hands it to Martok, reminding him that "Great men do not seek power. They have power thrust upon them". Martok becomes the new Chancellor. In the third plotline, Chief
Miles O'Brien suggests that Dr.
Julian Bashir falsely announce that he has found a cure for the Changeling disease in order to lure someone from Section 31, who may know the actual cure, to DS9. ==Reception==