The Journey, Episode 1: Gifts

Surrogacy becomes a site of exploitation as a couple, Sylvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, recruits multiple women across the United States to carry their children simultaneously through their own private agency. What begins as a series of individual "journeys" to help a couple build a family unravels into a disturbing scandal when surrogates discover they were part of a mass-breeding operation. Police investigations into the couple’s Arcadia, California, residence uncover a makeshift facility housing over twenty children, with evidence of physical abuse and neglect captured on security footage. This case exposes the dangerous lack of oversight in the multi-billion-dollar, largely unregulated American surrogacy industry. As the children are placed into foster care, the surrogates—bound by restrictive confidentiality contracts—find themselves navigating a complex legal and emotional landscape while attempting to protect the infants they carried from further harm.