As Bajor chooses a new kai, Kira investigates a claim that her lover, Vedek Bareil, betrayed resistance fighters to the Cardassians during the occupation.
Bajor is about to pick a new kai, and Kira hopes Bareil will beat Vedek Winn. Winn shelters Kubus Oak, an exiled collaborator, who claims that Bareil gave away the location of 43 resistance fighters, among them Kai Opaka's son, who were then massacred at Kendra Valley. Winn manipulates Kira into investigating.
The records seem to confirm it and Bareil withdraws from the election, leaving Winn to become kai. Kira then learns that the information was actually given by Opaka herself, sacrificing the cell to save many more villagers, and that Bareil had covered for her to protect her memory.