The Doctor arrives on a planet where it is raining hard. He ventures out into the muck and discovers a couple of hooded figures, who mysteriously say they've been waiting for him. They've mistaken him for Asiries, the representative of the Raymah, the galactic leader. They explain that they are to take him immediately to Qar, the planetary leader. On the trip to the capitol, the Doctor and his party encounter some Tryods, a species of vaguely lupine animals. His travelling companions have little regard for the sanctity of Tryod life, but the Doctor notes some kind of sapience when he watches the way two of them battle each other.