The time is the 24th century and the ship is the newly-commissioned Enterprise-E. Its captain, Jean-Luc Picard, has been ordered not to interfere in a battle between a Borg Cube and ships from the Federation. However, seeing the Federation is about to lose, Picard ignore his orders and takes command of the defending fleet. With his knowledge of the Cubes weak spot, they destroy it. However, a small part of it escapes and plots a course directly for Earth. The Enterprise chases it and enters a time distortion created by the Borg. They end up in the mid-21st century, and their only chance of stopping the Borg from assimilating Earth is to help Zefram Cochrane make his famous first faster-than-light travel to the stars.