On the planet Stentor, silence is not only golden; it is the key to maintaining peace in world devastated by a great war. But that calm is shattered when a group known as the Ghazi create a new technology that intercepts old Earth radio signals and rebroadcasts them across the planet. Each day the din grows more deafening. When Captain Sulu and the crew of the U.S.S. Excelsior are summoned to investigate sub-space interference emanating from Stentor, Sulu and his communications officer Terra Spiro discover that the Ghazi actually believe the signals are the voices of the gods, and Sulu must disabuse them of this belief before the noise drives Stentor to war.