Georges Fabre has been dreaming about the adventurous lives of two of his ancestors since childhood. He wants to understand what drove them to live more than 20 years each in South America.

The film tells about the extraordinary destiny of his great-grandfather, son of a Catalan peasant, who left in 1910 to colonize 1.250.000 hectares of rubber, and of his grandfather who, in his turn, was swept along by this passion for adventure.

The descendant leads the viewer from the Pacific Coast over the Andes through Ecuador to Iquitos, Manaus, Belem and finally to the Atlantic Coast. He uncovers many eventful episodes involving fantastic contracts, head-shrinking indians, 5.000 kilometres of the Amazon, an expulsion by the army, various railway routes, ministerial antechambers and the funding of an Alliance française...