Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of actor Kate Burton and media mogul Barry Diller, meeting ancestors who made huge sacrifices to escape poverty.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the family trees of actor Kate Burton and media mogul Barry Diller—two people who grew up in comfort, thanks to ancestors who did not. Moving from shtetls to coal mines to orphanages, Gates and his guests learn stories of extraordinary sacrifice and explore a profound question: what do we inherit from people whose lives were unimaginably more challenging than our own?