General Martok receives orders from the Klingon High Council to search for a Klingon vessel, the B'Moth, missing near the Cardassian border. The mission will be Martok's first since he escaped from a Dominion prison. Assigned a Klingon ship, the Rotarran, to command, he gets permission to take along Worf as his First Officer, while Dax joins them as the ship's Science Officer. They board their vessel and begin the search, only to discover that their crew is hardly the group of proud Klingon warriors they expected. Instead, it is an embittered ensemble whose morale has been destroyed by a series of punishing losses at the hands of the Jem'Hadar, and Worf realizes that his friend General Martok is no longer fit to lead.