As a tiny Delta Quadrant shuttle outruns a larger vessel, the shuttle's pilot tries to radio the U.S.S. Voyager. When she does contact Voyager, she claims she is Lyndsay Ballard, a former shipmate who has been dead for three years. Nobody on Voyager believes her story because she no longer looks human. She tells Captain Janeway and the crew that a Delta Quadrant race known as the Kobali had found her body drifting in space and reanimated it. The Kobali procreate by altering the DNA of the dead they salvage from other races. Her former best friend Harry Kim was with her when she died and believes her story based on the facts she gives about her death. The Doctor finds traces of human DNA in her, which convinces Janeway she is telling the truth.

Seven of Nine has been placed in charge of four Borg children that are onboard Voyager. She plans every hour of their day, including an hour for fun, and does not understand why the children are so rowdy. When the children do not play games according to the rules she makes them stand in a corner.

The Doctor creates a hypospray that can make Ballard look human again. She does begin to look more human, but the hypospray makes her feel sick. When she eats her former favorite meal, she claims that it tastes funny. As she returns to her post in engineering she begins to speak in Kobali.

Seven asks Chakotay if she can be relieved of her duty as guardian of the Borg children. Chakotay tells her that she is treating the children like they are on a Borg cube, while she should be treating each child as an individual. He denies her request.

The Kobali vessel that had been chasing Ballard makes contact with Voyager. The vessel's commander, Q'ret, asks to speak with Ballard. Q'ret asks Ballard to return to their planet. He tries to confuse her emotions by accusing the Voyager crew of setting her adrift like trash and telling her that her Kobali sister misses her. She refuses to go back.

As Kim talks with Ballard later, she admits that she does feel more at home with the Kobali now. Q'ret begins to fire on Voyager and insists he will not stop until Ballard comes back. When Kim attempts to return fire, Ballard tells him that she wants to go. Kim is sad, but lets her go.