Tekenny Ghemor travels to Deep Space Nine to visit Kira. He is dying and, in keeping with Cardassian custom, wishes to share his secrets concerning Cardassian government with a close family member. Since he has no family, he chose Kira as the recipient of the information. Because Cardassia is under Dominion control and Ghemor is strongly against the Dominion, Kira believes Ghemor may have useful information for the Federation. Therefore, she agrees, reluctantly, to listen.
Her relationship with the dying Ghemor causes Kira to remember her own father. He died during the Cardassian occupation after he was severely wounded during an attack. Kira left her dying father to fight the Cardassians. By the time she returned to him, he was dead.
Ghemor begins sharing his information with Kira. Meanwhile, Dukat and his Dominion advisor, Weyoun, arrive on the station to extradite Ghemor to Cardassia. Sisko is shocked to see Weyoun since he witnessed Weyoun’s death during the joint Dominion/Federation mission to destroy the iconian gateway. Dukat tells Sisko that the Vorta are experts in cloning. Weyoun explains that he didn’t die, his predecessor did. This Weyoun was the fifth clone, the one who died earlier was the fourth. When Sisko points out that the cloning offers a sort of immortality, Weyoun subtlety offers the same immortality to Sisko.