Lwaxana Troi visits the Enterprise again along with a small delegation of Icarans, who communicate in telepathic imagery with no verbal elements whatsoever. To prepare them for their first meeting with the Federation council, Mrs. Troi is trying to help the Icarans learn to translate their imagery into speech, a facility they were born without. Not long after Deanna notices her mother experiencing brief episodes of intense anguish, Lwaxana collapses into a coma, and the only clues to her condition and the reason for it are held by the Icarans, who are not able to fully communicate it.
