Dax falls in love with a man from Meridian, a planet that exists in normal space only briefly before shifting out of phase for sixty years.
In the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant witnesses the appearance of Meridian, a planet that spends most of its time in another dimension and is present in normal space for only a few days at a time. Dax helps its people slow the loss of time spent in normal space and falls in love with a resident named Deral.
Dax decides to go with the planet when it shifts away, but her body cannot shift with it, and the crew beams her back in time. She must wait sixty years to see Deral again. In a comic subplot, a visitor named Tiron pays Quark to make a holosuite program featuring Kira, much to her annoyance once she finds out.