The station guards a wormhole leading to the distant Gamma Quadrant, home of an expansionist empire known as the Dominion, which is ruled by the shapeshifting Changelings.
At the end of the previous season, the Dominion captured the titular space station, but the Federation blocked the wormhole with a minefield to prevent reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant.
Aboard DS9, Dukat sees through Sisko's ruse; he deliberately allows some of his ships to open a hole in the formation to set a trap for the Federation fleet.
Surmising that Dukat is setting a trap, Sisko nonetheless orders his ships forward, desperate to reach the station.
Meanwhile, Dukat's aide Damar arrests Kira, Sisko's son Jake, and Rom's wife Leeta, correctly surmising they are part of a conspiracy against Dominion rule.
As Sisko prepares for a desperate suicide mission, he receives a vision from the Bajoran Prophets, the powerful aliens who live in the wormhole, who are upset that he intends to sacrifice himself before fulfilling their purposes.
[2] In 2013, IGN ranked "Sacrifice of Angels" the 23rd best episode of all Star Trek television, noting it has a "dramatic showdown" that helped set the stage for the Dominion war story arc that continues in this season.
This six-episode arc is noted for its serialized format, compared to shorter two-episode stories that had been more common to the Star Trek franchise up to that time.
[8][10] Sometimes the episode prior to "A Time to Stand", "Call to Arms" is also included in this story arc, for a full seven-episode saga.
[12] In 2016, The Washington Post called the Dominion war story arc possibly the "richest narrative" of the Star Trek universe.