Lost! Queen Julia of the planet Bardotta has been abducted. If Representative Jar Jar Binks and Jedi Master Mace Windu cannot find the missing Queen in three rotations, a sinister prophecy will be fulfilled. The bloodthirsty Frangawl cult will take over the Bardottan government and its planetary system will be overwhelmed by chaos, death, and destruction.

Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks depart Bardotta in a Jedi shuttle. Jar Jar describes to Mace the Frangawl sacrificial ceremony that tore the Force-essence out of an ill-fated Dagoyan Master.

Mace wonders what the cultists plan to do with the living Force trapped within their containment sphere, as they are not Force-users like the Jedi or Sith. He senses a dark presence at work. But he also senses the trail of the containment sphere. If he can find it through the Force, they will be able to find the Queen and the cultists.

Meanwhile, the Frangawl ship approaches the city on the desert moon of Zardossa Stix. It is greeted by other cultists of various species. The cult leader emerges carrying a barely conscious Queen Julia. Julia calls for Jar Jar to help, but the Frangawl cult leader dusts her with sleeping powder.

An aide informs the cult leader that he had another vision: the Great Mother has warned that the Jedi Master knows of the sphere and is in pursuit. The cult leader frets that their plan has been discovered. They must make haste to transfer the living Force from Julia to the Great Mother.

The Jedi shuttle lands in the Zardossa Stix desert city. Jar Jar is eager to get afoot and find the cultists, but Mace tells him to wait while he meditates on the Force. Mace sees visions of people, a market, a square...and then the image of the sphere and the Queen crystallizes in his mind's eye. He springs from his seat and runs into action, Jar Jar tagging along.

Mace and Jar Jar proceed on foot into the thickening crowds at the center of the city. Mace recognizes the marketplace from his vision. He Force-leaps to the top of a tall building in the square while Jar Jar looks about at street level. Looking past a swarm of Gossam vendors, Jar Jar spots the cultists carrying Julia through an archway. Julia calls for Jar Jar, and Jar Jar calls out for Mace.

Mace gives pursuit, but one of the cultist allies -- a Zygerrian woman carrying a tooka -- causes a herd of domesticated eopie to scatter, slowing the Jedi down. Jar Jar runs into an alleyway where he is surrounded by his cultist quarry that have staged a trap for him. Mace runs atop the backs of the crowding eopies to arrive in the alleyway, where he begins brawling with the cultist thugs.

Jar Jar escapes to follows the cult leader and the captive Queen while Mace fights off the belligerent cultists. The leader and the Queen climb a set of stairs up the hillside, protected by covering fire from a diminutive cultist who operates a tripod-mounted heavy repeating blaster. Mace takes out the gunner, and then continues the chase with Jar Jar.

To cover the escape of the cult leaders and their prisoner via rail speeders, one cultist -- a Ming Po animal trainer -- hangs back and releases a pair of savage gundarks. A misstep by Jar Jar causes him to bump into Mace, and the Jedi Master drops his lightsaber. The trainer snatches the weapon with his whip, leaving Mace to fight the gundarks unarmed.

Jar Jar tangles with the trainer, tackling him to recover Mace's lightsaber. The trainer drops the lightsaber which Jar Jar retrieves with his sticky tongue. He then spits the weapon into Mace's hand. Mace ignites his weapon, cuts down one of the gundarks and scares the other off.

Jar Jar clotheslines the fleeing trainer, leaving Mace to question the dazed enemy. The defiant trainer offers no answers, other than the cryptic word that the Shadow is coming, and the Great Mother will deal with the Jedi. Mace knocks the trainer unconscious and catches up with Jar Jar. Jar Jar sees that the cultists have escaped via rail. Mace and Jar Jar hire swift-footed eopies to carry them into the desert.

The cultists arrive at a stone ziggurat, a temple built in honor of Malmourral They haul Julia to the top of the structure, and brace her inside a lens-like contraption. The appointed time draws near, as the moons and stars surrounding Zardossa Styx align. Soon the Great Mother will draw the essence of the Queen and combine her powers with the living Force to be unstoppable. Meanwhile, Mace and Jar Jar race across the desert.

A mysterious starship lands at the zigurrat. The Frangawl cultists arrange themselves in a formation to honor the new arrival. Stepping from the starship, shrouded by mysterious green mist, is Mother Talzin. The Frangawl cult leader has been driven by images of Talzin. He presents her with the living sphere. Talzin can sense great power within, but can also sense the approaching Jedi. The ritual must begin at once.

Talzin intends to use a device built onto a spire that stretches out from the zigurrat, that will harness the power of the eclipsing sun. This energy will rip the spirit from Queen Julia's body and focus it into the living sphere. With the combined power of the sphere and her dark magic, Mother Talzin will become the most powerful being in the galaxy.

Mace and Jar Jar arrive at the ancient site, and must walk through a henge of stone columns to reach the ziggurat. The columns light up, and shape-shift into huge, semi-humanoid guardians animated by unknown powers. The stone guardians loom try to crush the interlopers. Jar Jar leaps atop their shoulders, causing the guardians to crash into each other in their attempts to squash the Gungan. Jar Jar even manages to capture a heavy energy projector from a stone guardian's arm.

Jar Jar and Mace arrive at the top the ziggurat as the lenses align. Mace comes face-to-face with Mother Talzin, who unleashes a torrent of deadly green energy from her fingertips. Mace and Jar Jar dive for cover behind pieces of the stone. Mace orders Jar Jar to rescue the queen while he again confronts Talzin. With her magic, Talzin summons a flaming green sword from the ether, and crosses blades with Windu.

With his appropriated energy projector, Jar Jar zaps the cultists and sends them scattering. He then unfastens Julia from the lens contraption before it is too late. The cult leader is caught in the blast of the lens and his living Force snaps out of his body and into the containment sphere. The sphere wobbles and drops, shattering, creating an explosion of light that bathes the top of the ziggurat.

The smoke clears. Mace stands with his lightsaber, ready to continue his battle with the Nightsister. But a forlorn Talzin stands before the shattered remains of the living sphere. She shrieks and then sublimates, turning into a windswept green mist.

Queen Julia is reunited with Jar Jar. She is grateful for the help of Mace Windu. She hopes this is a new beginning for the Bardottans and the Jedi.