Given covert assistance by Captains Jean-Luc Picard on the newly-refitted Enterprise and Will Riker on the Argo, Kirk travels to Romulus as a civilian, accompanied by his eight-year-old son Joseph and the cantankerous Dr McCoy. There he discovers an alluring enemy from his past and discovers that Spock's apparent murder hides a deeper mystery, one that reaches back in time to the very origins of life on Earth. Trapped on a deadly, alien world on the eve of a civil war that could plunge the galaxy into a civilization-ending conflict, Kirk's investigation brings him at last to a hidden Reman fortress. There he uncovers the true threat facing the Romulans, and learns that for peace to prevail he must sacrifice his son, whose blood holds a staggering secret...