Frustrated with a class assignment asking students to trace their roots to their ancestral homes, a young black girl explains to her family that she couldn't complete the assignment because she could only trace her family back three generations in the United States. Her grandmother gathers her and other family members around to tell them about their ancestral home on the West African plains, before slavery, and where their people thrived. She also explains how those who were captured for slavery, found ways to survive and carry on through the generations in spite of their terrible hardships and pain.