Soon afterward, Lwaxana marches into Picard's office, outraged by Timicin's revelation that he will soon participate in a ritual suicide known as The Resolution. The ritual calls on all citizens of Kaelon II to kill themselves upon reaching the age of 60 in order to eliminate the society's responsibility of caring for the elderly. Lwaxana likens the ritual to murder but Picard refuses to intervene since the problem is out of his jurisdiction.

Unable to sway Picard, Lwaxana focuses on Timicin, urging to stand up to the arbitrary Resolution. She begs him to take the first step toward changing the policy by publicly rejecting the ritual. Timicin initially refuses her request, but reconsiders when he discovers how close his research has brought him toward saving his planet's sun. With this in mind, he asks Picard to grant him asylum aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Picard agrees, nearly launching the U.S.S. Enterprise into war by incurring the outrage of the people of Kaelon II. The planet's science minister insists that Timicin return at once, dispatching warships and ordering them to fire on the U.S.S. Enterprise if the ship attempts to leave the area with Timicin. Timicin remains firm, however, until his daughter Dara transports aboard and pleads with him to accept his heritage — the heritage he taught her. The request touches Timicin and he agrees to return home to die among his loved ones. Since Lwaxana is now a loved one, she swallows her pain and disappointment and transports down to the planet with him, to witness his final Resolution and give her support to his decision.

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): LaForge reports a series of temperatures in "degrees Kelvin". This unit of temperature should not be reported as "degrees". "90 million degrees Kelvin" should be "90 million Kelvins".