The Bajoran Gratitude Festival is about to begin and everyone is eagerly anticipating its commencement. While Major Kira and Chief O'Brien wait for their loved ones to arrive at the station, Odo and Jake find themselves unlucky in love. For better or worse, Odo's luck is about to change when Lwaxana Troi returns to the station.
When the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended in 2369, the mining space station Terok Nor was left abandoned, its systems ripped out. By invitation of the Bajoran provisional government, Starfleet stepped in to oversee the rebuilding and day-to-day operations of the newly christened Deep Space Nine.
The years of Starfleet's nonintervention into Cardassian matters, however, had taken its toll on relations with the Bajorans. Consequently, Starfleet's position was a tenuous one; many Bajorans, suspicious and hostile as a result of decades of Cardassian oppression and brutality, did not greet the Federation's presence with open arms. The Federation's assistance is put to the test as DS9 becomes a center of travel and commerce that stretches into the Gamma Quadrant.