Lili Marquette gives birth to a half-Jaridian child, with the help of Da'an's Taelon core energy, that may be the last hope for the Taelon and Jaridian races. Augur, hunted by the Volunteers, goes into hiding, but convinces Juliet Street, an old friend of his, to help Liam and Renee while he is on the run. Sandoval tries to destroy evidence of the Jaridian existence.
A party for the new elite is in full swing at pro-Taelon Senator Edward Gale's posh Washington home when his daughter, Eva appears with a gun. She fires, wounding him in the arm before his security guards can subdue her. The next day, Liam Kincaid and Renee Palmer meet with a holographic messenger sent by Hubble Urick. He informs them of the shooting and tells them Eva is in the hospital, having tested positive for Kryss, a substance used by Taelons in small quantities to help them adapt to Ear
Liam and Renee investigate Zo'or and his link to a biomedical facility's clandestine cloning operation.
War Minister T'Than is murdered on board the mothership itself, leading Liam to discover the Taelons' darkest secret. Meanwhile, the late Jonathan Doors returns in cyber-form to administer a deadly attack upon them.
While Liam and Renee investigate the suspicions of false imprisonment and infringement of civil rights, an ammoralist associate of Augur's plans to steal Zo'or's gold on board the mothership.
The Atlantic National Alliance manages to negotiate amnesty for all Resistance members, Liam tries to convince Resistance member Halley Simmons to take up the offer. Sandoval uses parasites to make Volunteers do suicide missions against the Resistance.
The Taelons decide to leave earth following what appears to be an imminent Jaridian invasion.
Renee discovers that her younger brother is a victim to Zo'or's plot to harness human emotions.
While on board the Taelon mothership, Renee is taken hostage by a mysterious being that haunts the most secret part of the ship: the nursery where Taelon children are kept in stasis until there is enough core energy to restore them.
Liam and Renee investigate a serial killer who murders people in their dreams.
Liam and Renee discover that a baby is born with a CVI implant.
Liam is implanted with a neural surveillance device to track Da'an, who leaves earth on a mysterious final journey. Liam eventually joins Da'an on his quest: to attempt to merge with a Jaridian and restore both races to what they should have been.
When the mother ship hits dark matter, the ship does not begin to heal itself. Zo'or is left in an unconscious state and Sandoval takes control. He decides it is time to liberate the Earth from the Taelons. Liam is told he must remove it with his long-dormant shaquarava by the last person he ever expected to see again: Ha'gel, his father.
The relic left by Ma'el is stolen from the mother ship. Zo'or threatens to destroy a major city if it isn't returned. Liam believes the final chapters contain information on synthesizing core energy.
Street learns a lesson in trust while on the run from Sandoval. Zo'or has discovered Street's darkest secret: she has the ability to think in multiple dimensions, and thus might hold the key to the Taelon's survival.
The fate of the earth and the Taelons may be revealed when Liam and Renee learn of a facility where three astronauts from the future are being held. They try to learn from them what happens to the Taelons. Sandoval's wife is used as a pawn to gain important information from him.
Sandoval goes to Renee to request a trial to testify to atrocities against humanity committed by the Taelons. A manhunt for Sandoval begins when he quits and leaves the mother ship. Liam and Renee are charged with safely transporting him from D.C. to Montreal via train.
Strange assaults and several deaths may be related to a Doors/Taelon joint venture where Taelon core energy was used to heal people. It appears that the energy is being sucked back out of the patients.
Renee is torn between love and duty when her boyfriend is captured by the Taelons. In the process, she learns that there is much more to the Taelon Commonality than she thought... or more to the human heart.
The Taelons decide to enter death stasis and hope for the best. A desperate Zo'or demands that Da'an share the thousand years' worth of core energy the latter acquired from his ill-fated merger so that the pair can guide humanity for another 500 years. Da'an, knowing his child does not have humanity's interest at heart, refuses. Meanwhile, Liam learns that he only has days to live.
After a Jaridian energy beam turns several Taelon companion protectors into assassins, Zo'or demands that they be turned over to him in 24 hours – or he will open fire on Earth. Da'an, meanwhile, dispatches Liam to take the assailants alive; and Sandoval becomes a pawn of the Jaridians who are intent on destroying Earth.
The Taelons' fate – and possibly Liam's – is decided after Liam and Renee find Ma'el's regeneration chamber. The discovery of the secret location causes the surviving Taelons and Jaridians to seek the mechanism, which promises to restore their draining energy. Street, meanwhile, solves Ma'el's final which will allow the Taelons and the Jaridians to at last merge again and save both races.