Gavin Andrews takes the Laughlins, an Ulster-Scots family, on a personal historical journey back in time to discover what life was like for their ancestors at the turn of the 19th century. Abandoning their comfortable 21st-century lives, mum Kerry, dad Ainsley and daughters Sophie, Anya and Hope find out what it is like to run a small farm with no electricity and a kitchen made up of a table and an open fire. While they struggle with pigs, laundry and fire pots, grandfather Alan begins a genealogical detective trail which eventually leads to a celebrated historical figure.