For the majority of young adults today, the transition to independence is a time of excitement and possibility. But 4.5 million young people or a stunning 11.5 percent of youth aged sixteen to twenty-four experience entry into adulthood as abrupt abandonment, a time of disconnection from school, work, and family. For this growing population of Americans, which includes kids aging out of foster care and those entangled with the justice system, life screeches to a halt when adulthood arrives. Abandoned is the first-ever exploration of this tale of dead ends and broken dreams.