Beyond the Gates is the first daytime television soap opera to feature a predominately African-American cast since Generations (1989–1991) and the first new daytime soap to debut on a major American broadcast network since Passions in 1999. The serial centers around the Dupree family, a multi-generational affluent black family that lives in a gated community. It is set in a leafy Maryland suburb just outside of Washington D.C., and in one the most affluent African American counties in the United States.