Tivak is a human specialist and director of human welfare on a spacecraft sent out to illegally study humans from earth. He saw this as a chance to finally study his favorite species, humans. But, as Tivak learns more about the mission they have been sent to complete and the unethical treatment he's expected to perform on the humans, he begins to realize that this isn't a mission to harmlessly study humans and return them safely afterwards as he'd been told.