After an attempt to retrieve McKay and Lt. Laura Cadman from the memory banks of a Wraith dart, Cadman gets stuck in McKay's mind.

With everyone having a Sunday off - something recommended by psychologist Dr. Heightmeyer - all of the members of the Atlantis team pursue leisure activities. Rodney McKay and Carson Beckett are scheduled to go fishing; Sheppard decides to teach Ronon Dex about golf; Teyla spends some time in the gym; and Elizabeth Weir has a lunch date with the handsome Mike Branton. Their day off however is interrupted by a powerful explosion near the mess hall killing and injuring several members of the team. McKay thinks he knows the cause of the problem - a device found by two junior members of his team may have turned some of them into walking time bombs by creating explosive tumors in them.

Rodney McKay awakens in his lab, tied to a chair and with no memory of who or where he is. He did seemingly leave himself a video message telling him to look for Teyla. The problem began some 14 hours before when Dr. Katie Brown returned to Atlantis with plants from a planet she had visited. The plants had been cleared through the normal quarantine procedure but she is soon afflicted with severe headaches and loss of memory, eventually falling into a coma. Memory loss begins to afflict other members of the crew but they soon become distrustful of one another, making conclusions based on false assumptions and a misreading of the situation. Fortunately, there are two members of the team who seem to be immune.

The entire city locks down for a false quarantine, leaving people stranded with a decreasing amount of oxygen, while Rodney is unable to reach a computer.