Alex Haley (EVANS) joins the Coast Guard after leaving college. He meets and marries Nan Branch (ALLEN) before being sent to the South Pacific during WWII. In the service he also discovers a passion for writing inspired by a lucrative business writing love letters for his shipmates. After the war he reenlists and moves to New York with Nan and their two children. His marriage crumbles as he spends all of his time writing. watch
12-year-old Alex Haley (JOHN) learns his family history from grandfather Will Palmer (SHAW). Simon Haley (HAREWOOD) lands a professorship at an Alabama college where he works with the local rural sharecroppers, helping them increase production, in addition to his classroom work. Bertha (CARA) learns she has an illness. watch
Seventeen years later: Will Palmer (SHAW) prospers as the owner of the lumber company. His daughter Bertha (CARA) goes to college where she falls in love with Simon Haley (HAREWOOD), a poor sharecropper's son. Bertha picks up Simon's diploma as he leaves school a week early to join the Army and World War I. watch