On the way to the infirmary for a routine examination, Marin gives Carter the impression of being quite bright and precocious.

Back on Orban, Teal'C is asked to instruct Kalin's young boy Tonin about the ways of the Goa'uld. When Daniel asks about another "apprentice" he is told that she is not available because she has gone to experience her "Ovarium." No further explanation is forthcoming.

Teal'C seems impressed by the boy, who expresses remorse that Teal'C is carrying an alien larva that will eventually mean his death.

Back on Earth, Dr. Fraiser runs the standard series of tests on Marin while Carter and O'Neill keep the girl company by engaging in idle chitchat. During this conversation, it emerges that the concepts of "learning" and "school" are confusing to her.

Daniel, left behind on Orban, babbles merrily on to Kalin about his discoveries, but Kalin seems lost in the conversation and passes the cheerful archaeologist back to Tonin, who immediately grasps what he is saying.

Brain full of robots
Carter and Marin get to work on the reactor, but it soon becomes evident that Carter is out of her league.

Dr. Fraiser enters to ask Marin to come back for a few more tests. As she explains to Carter, O'Neill and Hammond, the girl's brain is infested with nanites, tiny cell-sized robots.

When they tell Marin about this shocking finding, she simply explains that the nanites are her people's way of acquiring knowledge. She goes on to tell the stunned SG-1 members that every citizen is given a harmless nanite after celebrating the coming-of-age Ovarium ritual, while Urrone apprentices are given many more at birth because they are required to learn vast amounts of information quickly.

Hammond becomes apprehensive at the thought of all these tiny robots, but decides the girl can stay at Stargate Command.

Back on Orban, Tonin requests that he be allowed to undergo the Ovarium immediately. Kalin asks him why, as it is still 6 months until the boy turns twelve, so Tonin tells him that the knowledge acquired from Teal'C must be shared with the rest of the Orbanian people to prepare them for the return of the Goa'uld.

Teal'C and Jackson discuss their findings about the Goa'uld occupation of Orban when Kalin enters. The man gives Daniel some tools he asked for and requests that Teal'C discuss information about useful anti-Goa'uld tactics with a new child. When Teal'C asks for Tonin, Kalin says that is impossible because Tonin has undergone the Ovarium.

Never known for his subtlety, Teal'C then demands to see Tonin immediately.

All this and draftsmanship
Marin and Carter go back to work on the alien reactor. Carter asks Marin to sketch out the core so she can get an idea what it looks like. Although Marin is at first apprehensive, saying she doesn't draw, she tries anyway.

Later, Jack finds the girl on a chair looking for paper and Carter asleep at her desk. Carter wakes up and looks at Marin's drawings with astonishment -- she has made a series of technical cross-sections of the reactor core.

O'Neill tells them to rest but Marin insists that Urrone children need little sleep and asks for more paper and pencils.

On Orban, Teal'C and Daniel attempt to speak with Tonin, who is curled up in a ball on a sparse bed in a small stone room, but the boy does not response. Kalin explains that the Ovarium is the process in which a young Urrone's nanites are "harvested" and distributed to each adult and non-Urrone child. When asked what will become of the boy, Kalin is evasive.

The members of SG-1 gather back at Stargate Command to discuss the implications of what they have learned. O'Neill wants Marin to stay with them and not be sacrificed to the Ovarium, but Hammond decides to send Teal'C -- of all people -- back to try to come up with a diplomatic solution.

Meanwhile, Marin remains convinced that the Ovarium is a great honor and she wants to return to Orban to undergo it.

The Crayola revolution
Back on Orban, Kalin tries to open the Stargate in order to retrieve Marin himself while arguing with Daniel over the merits of the Ovarium.

As Kalin explains, Urrone children are actually not common in Orbanian society, and she is the only one who has learned the workings of naquada reactor technology, making her irreplaceable -- as he puts it, if she does not have her Ovarium that they would lose 12 years of her research.

Hammond tells O'Neill that he has approved Kalin's request to take Marin back, but Jack insults him and leaves. Meanwhile, Carter and Marin finish their work on the reactor, setting off alarms throughout SGC and providing O'Neill with the distraction he needs to spirit the girl away from the base.

He takes her to his daughter's old school, where she takes part in an art class. First she paints the reactor, but then, with some prompting from O'Neill, she paints a flowery scene with a little stick figure of Samantha Carter in the corner.

Sadly, although she has regained some aspect of her childhood, she still wants to go back to Orban. In a touching moment in the Stargate chamber, O'Neill gives Marin a box of Crayola crayons and good-byes are said, then she is gone.

Later, Hammond tells the team that Kalin has requested their presence on Orban.

They 'gate through, only to find that Kalin is very excited about something. He brings them to the place where we first met the Urrone children digging, but now they are playing. Tolin is playing with a rope and Marin is drawing on a wall, having passed on the knowledge of how to be a child.

O'Neill, never the most mature of people under normal circumstances, promptly sits down and starts drawing with her.