Fearne Cotton is intrigued by her Welsh great-grandfather Evan Meredith who, despite working down a coal mine from the age of 13, ended up as a chemist in the home counties. Evan never talked about what he did during World War I, and Fearne decides to investigate. She is shocked to discover that Evan risked both his freedom and his reputation by following his conscience, caught up in a catch-22 situation with the authorities which was only broken when Evan took dramatic action. On her mother's side, Fearne finds an ancestor whose extraordinary professional ambition led to an encounter with Queen Victoria but ended in career disaster.

Best known as market trader Donna Yates in EastEnders, actress Lisa Hammond wants to get to the bottom of why her paternal grandfather Harry Hammond never spoke about his experiences in World War II. She uncovers the moving story of the trauma he endured and his efforts to overcome it. On her mother's side of the family, Lisa is reassured to discover many generations of London stock as she finds the countryside unsettling. But her relief is short lived as, going further back, her investigations plunge her deep into rural Wales.