Joining the quest to understand the molecular biology of the gene with the famous blender experiment, which shows that DNA, not proteins, transmits genetic information; looking at five scientists who compete to solve the mystery of DNA's structure.

Because DNA is only a blueprint, the discovery of its double helix structure is just the beginning; understanding how DNA synthesizes proteins; a dark horse researcher makes the crucial breakthrough; DNA fingerprinting becomes possible in the 1980s.

Covering the Manhattan Project of DNA, the Human Genome Project, to sequence all three billion base pairs of human DNA; Francis Collins and Craig Venter compete to reach the costly goal, which requires new technologies and disputed methods.