En route to the honeymoon of William Riker to Deanna Troi in her home planet of Betazed, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of this U.S.S. Enterprise receives word from Starfleet that a coup has resulted in the installation of a new Romulan political leader, Shinzon, who claims to find peace with the human-backed United Federation of Planets. The captain and his crew make a startling discovery.