While Irisa meets a face out of her past, Nolan and Amanda take a trip to deliver scrip for the new maglev branch, only to have their land coach stopped by jackers.
Kenya is among several people that are mysteriously abducted. Meanwhile, Rafe tries to determine who gave his dead son the golden device that may have led to the boy's death.
Two Defiance residents are killed under mysterious circumstances, and Nolan soon confirms that that they were torn apart by mutant Hellbugs. Meanwhile, Irisa is plagued by visions from the past, and Datak and Stahma try to reconcile the situation between Christina and Rafe so that her marriage to their son can proceed as planned.
On his first case as Lawkeeper, Nolan explores the old St. Louis underground with Rafe, looking for a Votak criminal. Meanwhile, Irisa runs up against Defiance's Castithan community when she discovers they're performing a distasteful native ritual.
In a world 30 years after the Votans have invaded and terraformed large portions of Earth, scavengers Joshua Nolan and his adopted alien daughter Irisa make their way through the wastelands. A quirk of fate brings them to the town of Defiance, where St. Louis once stood and where Humans and Votans now live in peace. Father and daughter soon become embroiled in a feud between two families and a murder, all of which is a prelude to an invasion.