Carlos Frias, an award-winning journalist and the American-born son of Cuban exiles, grew up hearing about his parents' homeland only in parables. Their Cuba, the one they left behind four decades ago, was ethereal. It existed, for him, only in their anecdotes, and in the family that remained in Cuba -- merely ghosts on the other end of a telephone.

Until Fidel Castro fell ill.

Sent to Cuba by his newspaper as the country began closing to foreign journalists in August 2006, Frias begins the secret journey of a lifetime -- twelve days in the land of his parents. That experience led...