The da Vinci is sent to Icaria Prime, where a team of archaeologists -- aided by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Lieutenant Christine Vale of the Starship Enterprise™ -- have found what may be the Krialta, a legendary Gretharan object from the time before they were wiped out by the Letheans.

However, the dig is suffering from rampant equipment failures, looters have raided the camp, and the people are having vivid hallucinations of memories they'd rather forget. Even as Commander Gomez tries to discover the cause of the malfunctions, Dr. Sarjenka must treat the hallucinations -- but she doesn't understand why Picard and Data, whom she's never met, look so familiar to her...