Returning to Gallifrey via the Timescoop, the Doctor ventures to the Capital, where he finds that its people and the High Council have vanished. With the assistance of a young woman named Alienka, the Doctor discovers that the events of Journey’s End have impacted on his home world – creatures from the Void have infected the Capital, and seek to extend their influence not only through the Matrix, but across all of time and space as well. Angry and embittered, can the Doctor summon up the will to save his people and the universe from the depredations of an alien species intent on rampaging across the cosmos and feeding on every living being? 

A visit to the Celestial Exhibition sets the Doctor on the trail of master-sculptor Nanos Mortich, a man for whom art is everything. However, when the Doctor takes an unguided tour of Mortich's Wax Museum he soon discovers that his arrival is exactly what Mortich has been waiting for... Why are Mortich's waxwork models so lifelike? And just what sort of trap has the Doctor walked into this time?

Absolute ruler of the planet Tensira, the Emperor Anxidius sinks ever deeper into homicidal paranoia and madness. His one all-consuming obsession: to open an ancient, indestructible box and take its mysterious contents for himself. His own scientists labour at the task night and day with the executioners axe hovering above their heads, but only the Doctor seems to understand what the box really is. Does he dare open it and let the mad emperor have its secrets? And if not, can he find a way to keep his own neck off the chopping block?

Once upon a time a man named the Doctor did a shameful thing, something he had to do to save the lives of an entire planet. Now the guilt has come back to haunt him in the shape of a sphere; a silver sphere on its own journey home. But rectifying the problem is not going to be easy; scattered over space and time are others affected by it; manipulated by it; changed by it. Now they are coming together: Pamanzi, a trader with a hidden past; Jeremiah, a man driven to insanity in the search for his missing family; and the Goyellercanth herself. The Doctor is lost, following the instincts of a sphere, its instincts of survival, and hoping, at last, that he is doing the right thing...

A visit to the Gamma-Magna Star System triggers an unexpected turn of events as the TARDIS is penetrated by a deadly foe who is able to unpack the Doctor's memories at will. Forced to make a dark and disturbing journey down memory lane, the Doctor is confronted by long-gone companions and adversaries, as his anonymous interrogator seeks to discover what makes the Time Lord tick. As the Doctor struggles to distinguish reality from fiction, a deadly game of questions ensues which threatens to destroy him.

On the planet Kalen, the people are at peace. Everyone is gathering for their highest holiday, a celebration of light, family and honour. But on the very eve of the festivities, their peace is broken by a race of creatures that seem to resemble Death himself. The Doctor, heartsick with past events, decides that it's time for a long rest, but it seems fate has other plans for him. Rather than finding himself in a peaceful setting, he's thrust headlong into Kalen's troubles. Who are the alien invaders? Will the Doctor be able to pierce through the falling shadows? And, who is the young woman that seems to know all about the Doctor?