A poor black woman went to Johns Hopkins for free treatment of the cervical cancer that would eventually kill her. A doctor took a tissue sample and was able to turn it into a line of cells used worldwide for scientific research. Who was Henrietta Lacks? Who were the doctors and scientists who used her tissue, and how did they, and the world, gain from her unknowing donation? And who were the people Henrietta Lacks left behind? Writer Rebecca Skloot follows these stories, along with the tale of how she found the Lacks family and gained their trust in this moving book.