Launched as part of the United States participation in the first International Polar Year, the Greely Arctic Expedition sent twenty-five volunteers to Ellesmere Island off the northwest coast of Greenland. The crew was commanded by Adolphus W. Greely, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Signal Corps. The ship sent to resupply them in the summer of 1882 was forced to turn back before reaching the station, and the men were left to endure short rations. The second relief ship, sent in 1883, was crushed in the ice. The crew spend a third, wretched winter camped at Cape Sabine. Supplies ran out, the hunting failed, and men began to die of starvation. At last, in the summer of 1884, the six survivors were brought home, but the excitement of their return soon turned into a national scandal-rumors of cannibalism during that dreadful, final winter were supported by grisly evidence.

Abandoned is the gripping account of men battling for survival as they are pitted against the elements and each other. It is also the most complete and authentic account of the controversial Greely Expedition ever published, an exemplar of the best in chronicles of polar exploration.