Garak is dying from an implant, and Bashir tries to find the cause.
Bashir finds that Garak has a device implanted in his brain that is failing. Garak eventually admits that it was put there by Enabran Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order, to resist torture, and that he has been using it to cope with exile and is now addicted to it.
While in withdrawal, Garak gives Bashir several conflicting stories of how he came to be exiled, involving a man named Elim. Bashir visits Tain, who reluctantly provides the information that saves Garak's life, and tells Bashir that Elim is Garak's own first name. Garak recovers and resumes lunch with Bashir, still insisting all his stories were true.