Captain Malcolm Reynolds ends a game of cards on one of the Outer Rim moons as the lucky winner of an old map. Ancient and written in impenetrable symbols, the former owner insists it's worthless. Yet back on Serenity, River Tam is able to read it, and says that it points the way to one of the Arks, legendary generation ships that brought humans from Earth-that-was to the 'Verse. The salvage potential alone is staggering. But the crew approach the aged floating ship, they find it isn't quite as dead as it first seems, and the closer they get, the more agitated River becomes. She claims something is waiting on that ship, something powerful, and very angry...