In the twenty-first century, years before the formal first contact that would be recorded in Earth's history, a Vulcan space vessel crash-lands in the South Pacific, forcing humanity to decide whether to offer the hand of friendship, or the fist of war. Complicating matters is a second visitation: a group of people from 200 years in the future, who serve on a starship called Enterprise....

In the 23rd Century, Admiral James T. Kirk reads a new novel about the same occurrence, and dreams of his dead comrades, Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner. This classic Original Series novel by Margaret Wander Bonnanno features a new afterword by the author.