A device that creates hallucinations affects the team off-world.

A plague of sorts is spreading across the Pegasus galaxy and Dr. Keller estimates that hundreds of thousands will die if they don't don't find a way to stop it. Her research shows however that the disease's origin is with the Hoff, who had been working on a way to kill the Wraith. Sheppard and the others think they know who might be spreading the virus and why. Teyla meanwhile believes she is receiving messages from Kanaan, the father of her child. She's getting his messages while sleeping and most think she's just dreaming. She follows the clues he gives her but she is taken prisoner by an old enemy who has very specific plans for her. In their search for Teyla however, Sheppard and McKay find someone completely unexpected.

Slowly, everyone on Atlantis comes to terms with the sudden re-appearance of Dr. Carson Beckett who, he claims, has been Michael's prisoner for some two years. He tells them what he was doing in Michael's laboratory and they set off to find the kidnapped Teyla. Dr. Keller figures out just how he's come to there at all. Sheppard meanwhile has been using all of his contacts to try and locate Teyla but they come across someone from the past. Teyla in turn has found some of the Athosians alive but they are few in number as a result of Michael's experiments. Michael explains to her just what it is he wants from her as well as his own plans for the future.

Combat engineers from Atlantis work against the clock to rescue four of their colleagues who are now trapped in the rubble of Michael's medical compound. With Michael en route, they quickly locate McKay and Major Lorne but Sheppard and Ronon are far deeper and their rescue is not assured. When Michael's ship arrives, they decide to try to rescue Teyla who is in labor and close to giving birth. When it's all over, Col. Carter is recalled to Earth for a performance review but Richard Woolsey has some bad news for her.

Ronon is abducted by a Wraith who tries to brainwash him.

Sheppard and his team are lured to a planet and are soon put on trial for crimes against the people of the Pegasus galaxy. In flashbacks, the three judge tribunal recounts the indictment against them including the re-awakening of the Wraith and the various missions where at least a few, if not more, innocent bystanders were killed. Sheppard does his best to argue that on balance, fewer were killed by their presence than would have been the case if they had never been there. A least one of the judges is clearly determined to find them guilty while a second seems far more sympathetic. It's left to Richard Woolsey, who has now joined them, to plead the rest of their case. A lawyer by profession, Richard clearly knows how the game is played and focuses on that third judge.