Cole and Mel visit a retreat for bringing romance back into a marriage, on the trail of a telepathically paired set of Orsian convicts. pretending to be a married couples poses problems when the two have to pretend to be intimate, while they try to track the paired convicts, who have figured out a way to scramble Cole's attempts to track them. Suspects abound, but Cole manages to track them down, only to be knocked out and find out the whole thing was a set up so that the two convicts could get into the Watchfire Bar and release Cole's imprisoned lifeforce/aliens. With Mel's help Cole manages to escape and thwart the two just before they can succeed. The two resolve that they can't be distracted by romance again.