A band of young people led by Doctor Sevrin who rejected technological society, stole a space cruiser and hijacked the Enterprise to reach the mythical paradise planet Eden.
Sevrin's followers are a movement of gifted young dropouts who scorn the artificial comforts of Federation life and want to begin again on an unspoiled world. They greet one another with the phrase we reach and dismiss rigid authority figures as Herberts. Among them are Adam, a musician, Tongo Rad, son of the Catullan ambassador, and Irina Galliulin, who had been at Starfleet Academy with Chekov.
In The Way to Eden, the Enterprise rescues the group from the stolen cruiser Aurora. Spock treats their search with respect and locates Eden for them, while Sevrin proves to be the carrier of a disease that makes him a danger to any primitive world.
Sevrin stuns the crew with ultrasonics and takes a shuttlecraft down to Eden, which lies in Romulan space. The plant life there is saturated with acid. Adam dies after eating a fruit, and Sevrin deliberately does the same.