Captain Kirk and the U.S.S Enterprise? join the Klingons to avert disaster in the Taygeta V system -- where a time/space warp has swallowed a spaceship without a trace. Spock suspects a link between the anomaly and the inhabitants of Taygeta, semi-aquatic creatures killed for the jewel-like tears secreted at the moment of death. But a mutinous Klingon officer threatens the vital mission, as a desperate Kirk and Spock race to save the Taygetians, the Federation -- and the entire universe!