In this opening episode, Oliver Tambo leads citizens of the world in their condemnation of South Africa's cruel and racist new regime. The world reacts with horror when protesters are gunned down in the town of Sharpeville and the entire ANC leadership is forced underground or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela is jailed for life and ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo escapes into exile, embarking on what will become a 30-year journey to engage the world in the struggle to bring democracy to South Africa. With resistance inside South Africa effectively crushed by the brutal apartheid regime, the fate of the liberation struggle is in Tambo's hands.

The brutal suppression of a youth uprising in the South African township of Soweto and the murder of activist Biko turn South Africa from a country into a cause, a worldwide emblem of injustice. But even as the most powerful western governments refuse to heed Oliver Tambo's calls for cultural and economic boycotts, it is the world's youth that helps turn the tide.

Citizens all over the world, from employees of Polaroid to a General Motors director, from student account-holders in Barclays Bank to consumers who boycott Shell gas, mount the first-ever international grassroots campaign to successfully use economic pressure to help bring down a government. Faced with attacks at home and growing chaos in South Africa, international companies pull out in a mass exodus, causing a financial crisis in the now-isolated South Africa.

In this final episode, the campaign to free Nelson Mandela ignites a worldwide crusade which brings apartheid to an end. Faced with growing international isolation, the apartheid government tries to convince the world of the merit of its piecemeal reforms even as it savagely struggles to suppress open revolt. Three generations join together as the United Demographic Front, mounting a fierce campaign of defiance, demand the freedom of ANC leader Nelson Mandela. Caught between an unstoppable internal mass movement and ongoing international pressure, the apartheid regime is finally forced to the negotiating table and at last lifts the decades-long ban on the ANC. After 27 years in prison Mandela is released, sparking a global celebration as he tours the world to thank all.