What would it be like to live in a perfect world?  for Hannah Bates, the question is irrelevant, for she has lived in a perfect world.  At least, she believed so at one time.  Hannah was born in the unique Genome Colony on Moab IV.  As of 2368, no Federation records of the colony existed -- its founders, who traveled from Earth, wanted to establish a perfect society with no outside contamination.  Hannah's people had lived in isolation for two centuries.  She, like all the colonists, was the product of eight generations of careful genetic engineering.  Bred specifically to be a scientist and destined before birth to be the leading expert on the Genome bioshere and its maintenance, Hannah performed her task with excellence, until the colony became threatened by a cosmic disaster -- a disaster that changed Hannah's life, and her world, forever.

When Hannah discovers that a stellar core fragment of a disintegrating neutron star is on a near-collision course with Moab IV, she immediatel begins work on a solution, designing a multi-phase tractor beam that can, in theory, push the fragment off couse enough to miss Moab IV.  The problem is that her colony can't generate the power needed to operate such a beam.  The appearance of the U.S.S. Enterprise changes all that.  Not only do these Starfleet offecers possess the technology to help Hannah save her world, but they open her eyes to a whole universe of ideas she's never known before.  while the rest of her people, like leader Aaron Conor and colonist Martin Benbeck, anguish over the "contamination" that these strangers have brought to Genome, Hannah happily submerges herself in the flood of the unfamiliar and realizes that she cannot go back to the life she once led.

Hannah is proclaimed a hero by her people when, with the help of chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, the multi-phase tractor beam works.  Genome Colony is saved.  But now Hannah must threaten it again by leaving.  Her society is so carefully balanced that her departure could destroy Genome as efficiently as the stellar fragment could have.  If others follow her, the damage will be even worse.  But Hannah has no choice.  In a desperate attempt to circumvent ridicule and bring enlightment to all of Genome, she attempts to fake a biosphere breach, hoping to force everyone to evacuate.  But Geordi sees through her ruse.  He forces her to be honest with herself and her people.  So Hannah faces leader Conor and demands freedom.  In the end, much to Conor's regret, she leads a small band of colonists aboard the Enterprise, as the lure of knowledge proved irresistible enough to give up a perfect world.