Dr. Kate Jennings enters a psychiatric hospital where she is scoffed at and looked down upon, treated as little more than a nurse. She is given lots of difficult patients in an attempt to make her quit, but she sticks to her guns and keeps doing what she is there to do, to help people.
One day, Dr. Wykoff gives her a new patient, one so deluded and volatile that she will surely hand in her resignation. She arrives at the patients room and opens the door to find a man strapped to his bed, clearly distressed and muttering to himself. As she tries to talk to him there is no response to her questions, until she asks what he needs and he says a pencil and paper. Despite being told, under no condition to release him or give him any writing implement, she does just that, which seems to bring him out of his stupor and he finally focuses on her.
She tells him that she is there to help him and extends her hand and introduces herself. He takes it and tells her his name is Benny Russell. They begin talking, beginning in his fantasy world and what it all means to him in the context of the real world. It turns into a very impactful conversation about they burdens and discriminations they face and the fragility of mental health, spread out over a number of sessions. One day Jennings returns to Benny's room and finds him asleep, though there are a stack of papers beside his bed, under the title "Voyager" and as Jennings starts to read she is shocked to find the Captain is a woman called Kathryn Janeway, who bears a remarkable resemblance to herself.
As she finishes she looks over the top to see Benny is awake and watching her. When she asks what the story is for or what it means. He tells her, "You are the dreamer and the dream."
Captain Kathryn Janeway wakes up in her quarters, clearly a little uncertain about where she is for a moment, until the door chimes and she answers it to find Neelix with a breakfast tray for her and wishes her a pleasant day. She picks up the coffee mug and goes to stand by the window where she sees Benny standing behind her.
Meanwhile on DS9, Sisko (holding a raktajino) looks into the viewport and sees Dr. Jennings standing before him.
Credits...