Oppenheimer uses information from various disciplines including genetics, archaeology, anthropology and linguistics to synthesize theories on the origin of modern humans and their subsequent dispersal around the world.

Oppenheimer believes that anatomically modern humans crossed the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa and followed the "southern coastal route" once in Asia.

Thus Oppenheimer is opposed to the theory that there was another out of Africa migration using a northern route along the Nile and into the Levant as suggested by Lahr and Foley 1994.

The biblical analogies of Adam and Eve are used to describe the most recent common ancestors via mitochondrial DNA and the y-chromosome.

The documentary was produced by the American cable TV network the Discovery Channel and was narrated by Danny Glover and directed by Andrew Piddington.