The loss of another friend in the Dominion War is slowly sapping Captain Sisko of his energy and he is becoming frayed around the edges. With his father visiting the station, Sisko begins to question his place in the war. Then, the synaptic problems that almost caused his death ("Rapture") resurface and he is thrown back in time to Earth in the mid-1950s, to experience the fifties from the point of view of an SF pulp magazine writer, as well as the life of a black man in a still racially segregated culture.

Stardate: 51501.4 - Voyager starts receiving messages from Starfleet through the communications network, now that they know that the crew is alive in the Delta Quadrant. Some bad news is received by some of the crew, particularly Captain Janeway among others. After a short while, the messages become lodged in one of the modules, and the crew must retrieve them. Shortly, they are crudely introduced to a new enemy, the Hirogen, who seek nothing more than to kill victims for the thrill of the hunt, and Voyager is their next target.

A romantic Valentine's Day weekend turns out to be anything but for Dharma and Greg. It all begins when Greg downloads a travel brochure promising a cozy getaway at the Red Rose Inn in upstate snow country. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned. En route, they get ticketed for speeding when Greg tries to make up time lost burying a dead animal that Dharma spotted by the roadside. Worse still, when they arrive at the inn they discover it's just an ordinary little house with no snow and only a backyard trailer to accommodate guests. Meanwhile, Kitty misinterprets Larry's talk about an animal-shelter swap meet to mean wife swapping, and she and Edward find themselves strangely disturbed by the idea.

Valerie and Noah are not enthused when David's song receives radio airplay. They express their discontent at the amount of time David and Donna are spending together. David and Donna lie about their whereabouts before embarking on a shopping trip. They get into a car accident; Donna injures her back and begins popping painkillers. Val encourages Noah to reach out to his estranged half-brother, Josh. Valerie and Noah believe that their mates are cheating on them and become depressed. Noah gets very drunk, and Josh furtively slips something into Valerie's drink. After Josh is distracted by a phone call, Noah takes Valerie to the office and has sex with her. Val awakens in a daze and feels extremely ill, despite the fact that she had only one drink. David takes her to a doctor, where test results find Rohypnol (the date-rape drug) in her system. David and Valerie race over to the boat and accuse Noah of rape. Kelly spends a romantic Valentine's Day with Jeff. He expresses a willingness to pass up a job offer and stay in Los Angeles with her, but she dumps him and goes back to Brandon. Steve finds himself juggling three dates, thanks to his friends' insistence on fixing him up. He becomes captivated by a mysterious stranger, but loses track of her. He gets pulled over by the police the next day, and is shocked to find that the cop is his mystery woman.

Mr. Garrison decides to get a nose job. On the day of his operation, he gets Ms. Ellen to substitute for him. After the operation is complete, he discovers that he can have his dream career: hanging out and screwing hot chicks. Now Ms. Ellen is the new teacher, but that is OK because the boys all have a crush on her, especially Stan, which makes Wendy extremely jealous.