Sisko, his family and the newly joined Ezri Dax search Tyree for the Orb of the Emissary, while Kira blockades a Romulan base.
Ezri Dax explains she was the only available Trill when the Dax symbiont needed a new host, and joins Sisko, Joseph and Jake on their journey to the desert world Tyree. Guided by visions, Sisko digs up the Orb of the Emissary while also seeing himself as Benny Russell in a psychiatric ward. Opening the Orb expels the Pah-wraiths and reopens the wormhole, and a Prophet reveals she once inhabited Sisko's mother to ensure his birth.
At the station, Kira mounts a blockade of the armed Romulan base on Derna with outdated Bajoran ships until Admiral Ross convinces the Romulans to back down. Worf, Martok, O'Brien, Bashir and Quark carry out their raid on a Dominion shipyard in Jadzia's memory.