Buck and Twiki come across the survivors of a failed colony, a young widow and her son. The woman tells Buck that the other colonists all fled the planet as the result of a plague. Buck is confused by the woman's refusal to leave the planet despite being repeatedly being menaced by a goat-man named Pangor; but he soon discovers the truth about the plague when he contracts it and begins to turn into a goat-man himself.

An ancient videotape is discovered that proves that Buck was involved in the nuclear holocaust that nearly destroyed the Earth hundreds of years before. Commissioner Bergstrom convenes a war crimes trial aboard the Searcher and, if Buck is found guilty, faces a death sentence. In a desperate attempt to clear himself, Buck agrees to another mind probe, but his memories seem to confirm the charges.

Buck and Hawk are sent to pick up the survivors of a planetary disaster and transport them to a new home. Before departing, Buck rescues a young woman from a group of Dorian thugs. Later, while enroute to the planet, the Searcher is attacked by a Dorian craft, which demands that the woman be returned for the murder of a warlord's son. As the Dorians persist and subject the Searcher to a severe pounding, the refugees begin to rebel, insisting that the woman be turned over. Eventually, Buck discovers that truth about the woman and the startling reason why the Dorians always wear what at first appear to be merely ceremonial face masks.