Political tensions on Bajor are once again on the rise, and the various factions may soon come to open conflict. In addition, a series of murders has shaken everyone on board the station. While Security Chief Odo investigates the murders, Commander Sisko finds himself butting up against a new religious faction that plans to take over Bajor and force the Federation to leave Deep Space Nine.

Odo soon traces the murders to a bizarre and dangerous form of holosuite technology--a technology that turns it's users into insane killers and now threatens Sisko's son, Jake. As the situation on Bajor deteriorates, Sisko learns that the political conflict and the new holosuites are connected. Both are the work of a single dangerous man with a plan that threatens the very fabric of reality.

The plot is darker than anything Sisko has faced before, and to defeat it, he must enter the heart of a twisted, evil world where danger lurks in every corner and death can come at any moment--from the evil within himself, from his closest friends, or even at the hands of his own son.