Spurred by a personal tragedy, America's foremost documentarian is tackling cancer. Ken Burns examines cancer with a cellular biologist₂s precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The series artfully weaves three different films in one: a riveting historical documentary; an engrossing and intimate verite film; and a scientific and investigative report.

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, she died ten yers later of the "A-bomb disease". Through her courageous battle against the disease, she turned paper cranes into an international symbol of peace and became the inspiration for a monument to memorialize the many children struck down by the bomb. Ten years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki died as a result of the Atomic Bomb disease....