Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the family trees of musician Rubén Blades and journalist Natalie Morales - interweaving stories from across Latin America. Along the way, both guests learn secrets that their ancestors tried hard to conceal.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces actors Debra Messing & Melanie Lynskey to ancestors who made bold decisions that forever reshaped their family trees. Moving from shtetls in Eastern Europe to a fruit stand in NY City to the wilds of New Zealand, Gates introduces his guests to relatives who took great risks, overcame enormous hardships—and unwittingly transformed the lives of their descendants.