Seska lures Voyager into a trap with news of her child, and the Kazon seize the ship and maroon its crew on a primitive world.
Seska sends a message claiming that Culluh has discovered her baby is not his and asking Chakotay to rescue her and the child. Despite suspicions of a trap, Voyager sets out, and a wounded Kazon brought aboard later kills himself in an explosion that damages key systems. Tom Paris takes a shuttle to seek help from a nearby Talaxian colony.
The Kazon then overwhelm and board Voyager, and Janeway's attempt to trigger the self-destruct fails. The crew is put off the ship on a barren, primitive world, leaving only the Doctor and the reclusive crewman Lon Suder, hiding aboard, to resist the occupiers. The story concluded in the third-season premiere.