A news broadcast declares that Earth Alliance President Luis Santiago (Douglas Netter) is on his way to Babylon Five. He will be delivering a new fighter wing to the station. Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and Ivanova (Claudia Christian), riding in the Core shuttle to the Cobra bays, discuss this. Just before they arrive at the bays, an explosion takes place. At the C & C, Commander Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) watches on screen as a worker tumbles into space.
Another injured crewman named Nolan (Jose Rosario) is taken to Medlab, where Doctor Franklin (Richard Biggs) tends to him. Garibaldi meets Sinclair and thinks it may be sabotage. Ivanova says that Major Lianna Kemmer (Elaine Thomas), head of the President’s security detail, has arrived and wants to meet Sinclair. Garibaldi says he knew her long ago, their fathers being close friends. She ignores Garibaldi, however, and wants to use her own team to investigate. In the marketplace, Sinclair is interrupted by Ambassador G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) for a moment as Garibaldi confronts an alien thief named Dagool (Mark Ginther) and the confrontation almost becomes violent. Sinclair separates them and demands an explanation.
Garibaldi tells him that 17 years ago, he was working on Europa and drinking heavily. He was befriended by shuttle pilot Frank Kemmer, who was killed in a shuttle bombing perpetrated by Garibaldi’s enemies, and his daughter Lianna has always blamed him for it. He fell off the wagon for a long time. Sinclair hears from Doctor Franklin and goes to Medlab. Major Kemmer has awakened Nolan, won’t allow the doctor to treat him, and is aggressively interrogating him. She demands to know who planted the bomb and when Sinclair arrives, Nolan says it was Garibaldi and dies.
Major Kemmer insists Garibaldi be suspended from duty. Sinclair is forced to do that and put Kemmer in charge of the investigation. Garibaldi arrives home to find Kemmer and her aide Cutter (Tom Donaldson) searching his quarters. Cutter finds blueprints of the Cobra bays and a bag of Centauri ducats. Kemmer orders him arrested, but he flees. Sinclair cancels Kemmer’s station-wide alert for Garibaldi and orders Ivanova to remove Kemmer from C & C. He hopes that by the time she goes over his head to be reinstated by Earth Central, he will be able to find Garibaldi. The fugitive confronts Londo (Peter Jurasik) about the Centauri ducats; he knows nothing but suggests G’Kar might. He gives money to Garibaldi to find a place to hole up. Major Kemmer steps up the search for Garibaldi.
Garibaldi goes to G’Kar’s quarters. He also claims to know nothing but offers to let Garibaldi escape to work for the Narn Regime. He refuses. The Zeta Wing of Starfuries arrives ahead of Earthforce One and docks. Ivanova sets them up in a Cobra bay. Garibaldi goes to major station criminal N’Grath, but he will not help a cop. Garibaldi runs into Dagool and a pair of Drazi goons, who begin to work him over until Sinclair comes to his aid. Garibaldi flees to Downbelow.
As the President approaches, General Netter (Rod Perry) insists that Sinclair give his full cooperation to Major Kemmer. Sinclair confronts Kemmer, accusing her of a personal vendetta. Garibaldi makes it to a bar down below and begins drinking. He is turned in and Kemmer seizes him. She questions Garibaldi in her office. As they talk, Lou Welch (David Crowley) comes in, having searched Nolan’s quarters and found Homeland paraphernalia and a bomb detonator. Garibaldi speculates that Nolan was setting a bomb when it went off.
It was Kemmer’s aide Cutter who found the evidence in Garibaldi’s quarters, and he is right now checking the Cobra bays. Kemmer decides to inspect the bays herself, just as the ships are launching. Garibaldi goes with her. There is a fight with Cutter, which Garibaldi wins, and he radios Ivanova to cancel the takeoff. Charges are found set by Cutter in all the bay doors, which would have taken out the Starfuries and half the station. Garibaldi is reinstated but ashamed of crawling into the bottle again. He reconciles with Kemmer as she leaves the station.
In the bar there is a sign for a drink called Kima, which the set designers thought would still exist in the 23rd Century, but it was discontinued in 2008. Likewise, the plasma cutters used were bulky, rare and expensive when the story was written, but now are cheap and relatively common. Dagool is Bakiri. His facial tattoos are the mark of a Bakiri criminal brotherhood named Chadis. Garibaldi was named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. The best part of this episode is seeing Garibaldi struggling to survive in the criminal underworld he rides herd on every day, and the delight of G’Kar and Londo when the man who is a constant thorn in their side comes to them for help. Ivanova has a few good snarky lines at Kemmer’s expense.