American scholar Professor Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates hosts this ten-part public television series, in which he continues his lifelong exploration of the American identity - who we are, and where we come from as U.S. citizens. The miniseries thus constitutes an extension of Gates's prior efforts, African American Lives, African American Lives 2 and Faces of America. At the center of it all are numerous celebrity pairs who join Gates in exploring their own backgrounds and histories, including: Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick (who learn from Gates that they are distant cousins), friends Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis (who discover that their histories are tied to complex choices in the time of American slavery), and many others.