Part one of a 15-part series of documentaries produced by the American Broadcasting Company on the 20th century and the rise of the United States as a superpower.

This episode introduces both the series and the twentieth century and documents some of the major themes of the turn-of-the-century. Events such as immigration, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison's inventions, the advent of the automobile, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, suffrage, segregation, the silver screen, American imperialism and the Titanic are examined and survivors give first-hand accounts of life in the early years of the century.