The Cheyenne Mountain complex receives a bizarre phone call from a man in Montana. He rambles on for some time about alleged government conspiracies – the alien landing at Roswell, the J.F.K. assassination, and other such theories. But the man gets the attention of those in charge at the S.G.C. when he mentions a large circular object he knows to be deep under Cheyenne Mountain – something called the "Stargate."

The man knows Colonel Jack O'Neill by name, and requests a one-on-one meeting at a Montana diner. General George Hammond orders SG-1 to locate the man, and find out what he knows and how he knows it.

Dressed in civilian clothes, the team travels to Montana. O'Neill meets with the man, Martin Lloyd – a short, bald, goofy guy with thick-rimmed glasses – while the rest of the team monitors their conversation covertly.

While Martin tells O'Neill about his knowledge of the Stargate – including his belief that he is from outer space, and doesn't really belong here – Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson look up his records. They locate his address, and head off to investigate his home while O'Neill is left to stall him.

Jack allows Martin to lead him into the woods to show him his spaceship. They wander for quite some time; Martin is sure that the craft he landed in is buried in a clearing, but he can't find it. O'Neill finally asks that he give up the search.

Back in Martin's house, the others find very little of help. Martin is a conspiracy theorist, who spends his time forming theories about secret government plots. He catalogs all of his memories and experiences in a journal, suspecting government involvement when his hair brush goes missing.

They also discover a cabinet full of prescription drugs – anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and the like. Beyond this, the team finds nothing of substance about his knowledge of the Stargate program. It seems that there isn't much more to Martin than meets the eye.

But all is not as it seems; the members of SG-1 are not the only ones watching Martin. A mysterious group of men has planted cameras in his home, and they see Carter, Jackson, and Teal'c as the team searches the place.

O'Neill asks that Martin stop taking his medication for a while, and he begins to remember more. He's even had visions where he's seen seven strange symbols, and writes them down: it's a set of Stargate coordinates, complete with the point of origin for Earth. O'Neill realizes that there must be more going on than a paranoid guy with too much time on his hands.

Jack goes to find Daniel and Sam, who went to meet with Martin's psychiatrist – Dr. Peter Tanner. But they are nowhere to be found – and even the doctor's office has been completely cleared out. The doctor, it seems, is one of the men who has been watching Martin. He leads Sam and Daniel into a trap, and the four men interrogate them about how much they know about Martin.

Free of the drugs prescribed by the men working against him, Martin remembers the location of his downed space vessel. They return to the woods and find it, and O'Neill calls in a team to analyze the ship. Martin remembers that he had companions when he landed; they must be the ones who have Jackson and Carter. And when he recalls that they were soldiers, whose world was at war with powerful creatures that wanted them to worship them as gods, O'Neill is convinced: he and Teal'c tell him about the Goa'uld.

They set a trap for the four men, opening the ship's cockpit – which sends a remote signal to the mysterious four. Martin stands in the clearing as bait, and is taken by the men when they arrive. O'Neill and Teal'c follow cautiously, backed up by armed forces. Before they leave, Tanner activates a device on board the ship.

Jack and Teal'c follow the men to the warehouse where Sam and Daniel are being held, and free them. They also find Martin tied up in the back of a van, but the four men are nowhere to be found.

Miles away, the buried ship explodes, leaving a nothing but a massive crater behind.

Martin remembers everything now. The five of them were soldiers, but they were also deserters. They came to Earth on a ship to hide, but Martin wanted to return home when he realized what he had done (a dream made possible when he learned that Earth has a Stargate). The others simply wish to remain hidden, and for Martin to remain silent.

Jack theorizes that the military won't be able to find them; but he takes Martin back to his homeworld through the Stargate. When they arrive, they find the entire city leveled to the ground. The Goa'uld, it seems, won the war – and long ago. There is nothing left for Martin to return to.