Janeway is not amused when Q returns to Voyager with his son, now a headstrong adolescent. Learning that the Q Continuum wish to strip the boy of his powers, Janeway accepts the task of turning him into an upstanding adult. If she fails, the youth faces eternity as an Oprelian amoeba!

Offered the chance to communicate with Earth once more, the Doctor negotiates a distribution deal for his new holonovel, "Photons Be Free". When the novel's characters are revealed as cruel parodies of the Doctor's own crew mates, the hologram finds himself in very deep trouble indeed!