By learning to “read” DNA not only of modern Homo sapiens, but also of our distant ancestors, we gained the ability to travel through time. In this book, guided by geneticist-anthropologist Eveline Eyer, the reader will follow the same paths our vanished relatives—Neanderthals, Denisovans, and the mysterious steppe people who laid the foundation for all Indo-European languages—took; trace the trail of Bukharan Jews, the armies of Genghis Khan, and thousands of “royal daughters” sent by Louis XIV to populate New France; board a ship that takes African slaves away from their homeland. The author draws on the latest scientific research and shares her own field observations in a scientific area that yesterday seemed like fantasy. This science—genetics—answers the question: how did a human become a human? How, in just a few million years, a small group of wanderers across the savanna turned into the dominant species on the planet.