Chapel opens with a personal log. The Enterprise is on the way to the Vulcan system where they will survey the Kerkhovian Moon that was once home to a civilization that vanished. An energy anomaly has been detected just above the surface.

Pike has the ship traveling at sub-impulse speeds to allow for downtime.

Chapel is interviewing for a two-month fellowship sponsored by the Vulcan Science Academy on archeological medicine. She has M’Benga, Uhura, Ortegas, and La’an helping with her prep.

Things are still weird with Spock.

Spock has a personal log entry. He describes how M’Benga’s suggestions on how to control his Vulcan emotions have been successfully implemented. He is taking cooking lessons from Pike and learning to suppress reactions to pet peeves like Sam Kirk’s messiness.

He is looking forward to seeing T’Pring soon.

T’Pring informs him that when he arrives on Vulcan, they will be having their ceremonial engagement dinner. It is T’Pring’s mother’s idea. Her mother is opposed to the engagement.

The upcoming engagement dinner is distracting and Spock confides in Pike. He assures Pike he can still pilot the shuttle during the fly-by of the moon. Pike informs him he will have a passenger aboard the shuttle. Chapel.

Things are awkward aboard the shuttle.

They initiate scans of the moon and the system identifies the energy anomaly. It appears to be a stable vortex, a rupture in space-time. The vortex pulls them in and neither Spock nor Chapel is able to stop the shuttle.

Spock awakens in sickbay. M’Benga, Chapel, and Pike are there. They explain the shuttle crashed and Spock’s injuries were mysteriously healed but he’s been turned completely human.

Una and La’an inspect the shuttle. It was found floating dead in space but all damage from the crash has been repaired and the shuttle’s been cleaned thoroughly. La’an finds an oval ring they identify as alien tech.

Uhura analyzes the ring and thinks it’s a calling card with instructions for a subspace call. Pike asks her to try calling and it works. A non corporeal being answers, identifying themself as Yellow.

Yellow explains that Kerkhovian laws dictate that in the event of damage caused by collision with their transport tunnel, remediation must be made. Their remediation included making the two beings inside the shuttle – Spock and Chapel – “match” by removing Spock’s Vulcan DNA.

Yellow states that since remediation was made, no further contact is necessary and cuts off the call.

Spock is concerned that he is stuck as a human. Pike has contacted T’Pring and explained there has been an accident and Spock is recovering. They’ve agreed to postpone the engagement dinner.

Returning to his duties, Spock finds interacting with his crewmates different in his human state. Cooking lessons take on another level as he now smells everything being cooked. Including bacon. He finally tells Sam to clean up his mess and threatens to break him if he doesn’t.

La’an talks with him about his feelings. She likens it to human adolescence. She suggests he work on impulse control.

Chapel is working non-stop to find a way to reverse what’s happened to Spock. M’Benga tries to console her in the fact the Kerkhovians are inscrutable. She blames herself since the Kerkhovians changed Spock to match her.

Chapel rushes to make her interview for the fellowship. The interviewer is scathing in his assessment of her entry essay, scolding her for varying from the syntax and wording of the source material. She mentions her field work which he agrees he’ll look at and ends the interview there.

She runs into Spock who notices that she’s upset and deduces that it’s about the fellowship. He consoles her with the fact Vulcans can be such jerks which cheers her up.

He offers a hug which catches her off guard. And then cracks a joke.

Pike contacts Spock to meet him in the transporter room. He informs him Spock’s mother is beaming aboard.

Amanda informs Spock (who arrives wearing a hat to cover his ears) that T’Pring’s family is unhappy about the engagement dinner being postponed again and if it doesn’t go forward this time as planned, the engagement is off.

When Pike is unable to come up with a good reason to not have the dinner, Amanda announces T’Pring’s family has agreed to have the dinner on the ship tomorrow night.

This upsets Spock and he has an outburst which raises Amanda’s suspicions. She tells him to remove the hat and she realizes that he’s fully human.

In Pike’s quarters, they discuss the options. Amanda explains that T’Pring’s father wants the union because he wants to establish a connection with Spock’s father, Sarek. Unfortunately, T’Pring’s mother does not like humans and sees Amanda as an inferior.

Amanda decides they need to move forward and deceive T’Pring’s family. She plans to teach Spock how to lie.

The first step in the ritual of the engagement dinner is making the tea which involves handling a traditional Vulcan teapot which is scalding hot.

Uhura, La’an, Una, and Ortegas help him practice speaking like a Vulcan.

Amanda reviews the Ritual of Awareness where he and T’Pring will be made aware of their faults and flaws. There is a timer and Spock needs to keep cool until it counts down, no matter how insulting and unfair T’Pring’s parents are in their assessment of his deficiencies.

The last part of the ceremony is a mindmeld between parent and child. Spock is unable to convincingly fake the mindmeld and Amanda rethinks the plan.

M’Benga and Chapel discover that they’re running out of time to reverse Spock’s change.

Chapel wants to go back to the Kerkhovians to fix Spock. She convinces Ortegas to fly her and Uhura to the anomaly so they can try to contact the Kerkhovians.

Spock nervously waits with Amanda for T’Pring to arrive. When she arrives, she cuts off the traditional greeting, tired of formalities from all her time spent with her mother. Amanda sympathizes and offers to greet her parents for her.

T’Pring shares the anxiety she feels about the dinner. Spock chickens out of telling her about his condition.

T’Pril and Sevet arrive. While S’Vet is amenable to the venue and the food, T’Prill is not happy with anything. She insists the begin the ritual.

Chapel needs Ortegas to get the shuttle as close to the anomaly as possible so Uhura can get a message through to the Kerkhovians. She doesn’t want to ask them to risk their lives but explains she needs to try to save Spock. Ortegas and Uhura back her up and they fly into the anomaly.

Spock survives and completes the tea ritual.

Through the anomaly, Chapel, Uhura, and Ortegas are approached by a Kerkhovian named Blue. Chapel explains the remediation was done wrong. Blue states no complaints were lodged regarding the remediation, but they will look into it and disappears.

Amanda is quite mild with T’Pring during the Awareness Ritual which T’Pril finds unsatisfactory. T’Pril is very harsh with Spock, who barely keeps it together. Once the ritual is over, he escapes to the bathroom.

Alone, Spock releases some of his rage and then contacts M’Benga who informs him Chapel’s gone to find the Kerkhovians.

In the interdimensional space, Yellow arrives. Chapel is asked what her relationship to Spock is. When she says their friends, Yellow says friends do not have enough connection to lodge a complaint on behalf of each other. Chapel argues friends care for each other.

Yellow reveals that when the shuttle crashed, Spock diverted the shields to protect Chapel at risk of his own life, something the Kerkhovians thought strange.

Uhura and Ortegas urge Chapel to be honest about her feelings for Spock otherwise the Kerkhovians won’t approve the fix.

Spock returns to the gathering and T’Pril insists they begin the mindmeld. Pike tries to stall for time by interjecting with the important Earth custom of charades.

Chapel arrives with a hypospray. Spock explains it’s part of his recovery program. T’Pring watches them walk away together. Alone together, Chapel asks him why he moved the shields. As he’s about to declare his feelings, she hits him with the hypospray and reminds him he has people waiting.

Spock and Amanda complete the mindmeld and while T’Pril is compelled to comment their memory seems mundane, T’Pring reminds her that her comment is unnecessary. She need only acknowledge the ceremony has been completed.

T’Pril acknowledges that the ceremony is done and she commends Spock that he was able to do so despite his handicap of being his mother’s son.

Spock takes umbrage with T’Pril’s negging on Amanda and declares that he has been human for the entire ritual. He removes the fake eartips to prove his point. He points out that Amanda has shown more strength and compassion than anyone he has ever known.

Afterwards, T’Pring asks why Spock did not feel comfortable telling her about his condition. While he gives logical reasons for his decision to keep it from her, she feels left out. She accuses him of not trusting her. She tells him they need a break.

Chapel is contacted by the fellowship interviewer to tell her they are not offering her a spot. She responds be telling him she traveled to interdimensional space that day and convinced a species that hadn’t interacted with humans or Vulcans in centuries to help her with an ancient medical procedure. The Vulcan is intrigued but Chapel tells him to wait for her paper. She concludes that the fellowship isn’t the place for her since she’s way more than they could handle.

Spock has a drink with Pike and they commiserate.

Spock bids Amanda goodbye. He asks her why she chose the memory of the first time Vulcan children asked him to play with them at school. She told him it was the first time she saw him feel accepted.

Seeing the memory through her eyes, Spock realizes she was always shunned by Vulcan mothers, that she was excluded. He feels the sacrifice she made to be with Sarek and live on Vulcan as a human. She agrees that it isn’t easy being a human that loves a Vulcan.

Alone in his quarters, Spock makes a decision. As he’s leaving, he finds Chapel outside his door, coming to see him. He invites her in and tells her he and T’Pring are on a break. He feels badly but thinks it is necessary since he has feelings for someone else and doesn’t want to suppress them anymore. Chapel kisses him.