Dukat commands a freighter and is reunited with Kira.
Kira is unhappy to learn that her transport to a conference on the Klingon threat will be a freighter captained by Gul Dukat, demoted after the existence of his half-Bajoran daughter Ziyal became public. They arrive to find the meeting site destroyed by a Klingon bird-of-prey. At Kira's suggestion they mount the outpost's weapons on the freighter, lure the Klingons in with a false cargo and capture their ship.
Cardassia offers Dukat his command back on condition that he stop fighting the Klingons. Disgusted, he declares his own private war using the captured vessel. He invites Kira to join him, but she declines and brings Ziyal back to the station. Set during the Klingon conflict of the fourth season, the episode explores the tense, half admiring bond between Kira and Dukat, along with his attempts to win back status and his daughter.