A web-like creature stows away from a Kreetassan ship, takes several crew members prisoner, and the crew must learn to communicate with it.
After an awkward first contact with the Kreetassans ends in a diplomatic misstep, a strange organism that came aboard from their ship begins to spread through Enterprise. It envelops and captures crew members, including Archer and Tucker, holding them in a web-like mass.
Phlox and T'Pol study the creature, while Sato works with T'Pol to decode its communications and discovers that it is a collective being that wants to return to its own kind. The crew finds a way to bring it home rather than kill it, and the captives are freed. The episode was directed by Roxann Dawson, with a teleplay by Fred Dekker.