Picard shifted through time again, but upon return, can more accurately recall the memories of the present and future. There are 30 Romulan Warbirds near a spatial anomaly in the neutral zone, and orders are for Starfleet to travel to the anomaly as well. As Picard digested the news, Admiral Nakamura informed Picard there was a fleet-wide Yellow Alert. She found no sign of temporal displacement but did find a defect in his mind that could eventually lead to Irumodic Syndrome. Crusher evaluated him to see what was going on. When Picard returned to the present, he informed Troi he was just speaking to previous lieutenant Tasha Yar, who had died some time ago. Picard was briefly able to explain the situation but is ultimately transported through time again. He can't explain why, but he believes he's traveling through time. The two were in the midst of a discussion about asking Ryker's permission to date when they are interrupted by Picard.

The present timeline kicked off the story as Troi and Worf had just come out from a romantic excursion in the Holodeck.