Sisko, Bashir and Dax are stranded in 2024 San Francisco during the Bell Riots.
An accident while beaming down to Earth from the Defiant sends Sisko, Bashir and Dax to San Francisco in 2024. Sisko and Bashir are taken into a sanctuary district, a walled area where the poor and unemployed are confined, while Dax is found by the wealthy businessman Chris Brynner.
Sisko knows that the Bell Riots will soon break out here and that Gabriel Bell's death protecting hostages will change public attitudes. When Bell is killed in a fight that Sisko and Bashir get into, history changes, and the Defiant loses all trace of the Federation. Sisko takes on Bell's identity as residents seize the district's processing centre.