Half a year passes between the conflict with Pharaoh 90 and the Sailor Senshi. Since than, Setsuna, Michiru, and Haruka have lived in peace, raising young Hotaru together in a beautiful mansion. Although they have pursued their own interests—Setsuna is a scientists, Michiru still gives violin concerts, and Haruka is still racing—they have made it there mission to raise Hotaru together as a family. Still, they find they long for their Princess and miss their powers as Sailor Senshi.

Their lives, however, are not without strangeness. Although it has only been six months since Hotaru was reborn, her growth has been rapid so she is now not an infant but a young child. Her intelligence has also grown at an astonishing rate to the point that when the story returns to this family of four, she is already reading the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Still, she is a young child and she breaks Michiru’s best set of dishes while Michiru and Haruka are out shopping. She has grown up happy and healthy, with no apparently recollection of the past or her identity as Sailorsaturn. Still, besides her rapid growth, she also has healing abilities that mark her as unusual.

Things for Sailormoon and her friends have not been so peaceful recently. Following a full eclipse of the sun, a new enemy calling themselves the Dead Moon Circus appeared and began terrorizing the city. To make matters worse, a strange sickness began to take a toll on Mamoru, making him terribly ill. A Pegasus appeared in Chibi Usa’s dream, claiming that the Dead Moon Circus was holding him prisoner. The Dead Moon Circus is a group of evil beings lead by Queen Nehellenia and her aid Zirconia. The Queen is trapped within a mirror so they are searching for a legendary Golden Crystal which will set her free. The eclipse allowed her to awaken and now she seeks to be freed from the mirror and take what she sees as her rightful place on the throne as Queen of the Moon Kingdom. She began by having her minions attack Elysion, the land within the Earth were Prince Endymion ruled during the Silver Millennium. Now the place has fallen into ruin and its priest, Helios, has been trapped in the body of a Pegasus.

They already know that something is wrong because of a terrible feeling Setsuna experienced following the eclipse. Although her colleagues at the observatory did not notice anything, Setsuna felt a strange occurrence in the Time-Space continuum and tried to transform so that she could investigate. She was horrified to find that she could no longer transform—none of them could. Their powers as Sailor Senshi seemed to have vanished.

Michiru teaches violin lessons for a class of children about Hotaru’s age. They are very excited when Hotaru’s turn arrives because, as she starts playing the violin, a ghost image of a Pegasus appears. This time a girl with pointed balls of hair, obviously Chibi Usa, also appears with the Pegasus and she chases after it. Hotaru follows the ghost images down the hall, until the Pegasus cries out in pain, and falls to the ground as if it is dead. Chibi Usa knells before him, weeping. Hotaru watches silently as both images slowly fade away. Michiru, who has followed Hotaru, watches her observing the scene. She thinks, “From before I could hardly imagine that Hotaru would grow up so bright and cheerful. But there are times when, for a moment, her eyes grow cold, like they're frozen. Just like Saturn..."

The children leave and Michiru goes to the kitchen to do some dishes in preparation for supper. “If the four of us could always live in this house… But, our spirits are restless. We'll wake up from our dream. That time is at hand..."

After supper, Hotaru and Haruka are playing a game. It appears to be some sort of strange, virtual reality game in which a universe is projected in front of them. Apparently it simulates cosmic events from the past at an accelerated pace. Suddenly an eclipse, the full eclipse that brought the Dead Moon Circus, and the Earth turns completely black. Unsure of what this means, Haruka an Michiru end the game and tell Hotaru to go take a bath.

With the young child out of the way, the older girls begin to discuss the crisis that occurred in Hotaru’s vision through the game. Although they realize that this means that a new enemy has appeared, they are prevented from doing anything about it because they no longer have their Senshi powers. "So they don't need us anymore," says Haruka. "So we've been abandoned by our Princess. Now they can go fight as wonderful soldiers, without us. They can go protect the Princess. We can't transform. We aren't needed anymore. Is it a sign of that?"