After a national casting call that received over nine thousand submissions, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets 3 everyday Americans. Each has a family mystery that they have spent years trying to solve—only to reach dead ends. Using genetic genealogy and old-fashioned detective work, Gates unravels these mysteries, allowing each of his guests to understand themselves—and their families--as never before.

In a unique and highly emotional episode, actor Laurence Fishburne is joined by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.—who finds himself a guest on his own show for the first time. Both men have been haunted by profound family mysteries for years. Cutting-edge DNA detective work will solve those mysteries—introducing Laurence and Henry to ancestors whose names they have longed to hear.