On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship the Enterprise on a two week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a a life or death struggle when Khan escapes from years of exile and captures the power of creation itself.