In the summer of 1881, as part of the First International Polar Year, the U.S. Army sent Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely and a team of 24 men to build a scientific research station on Ellesmere Island, located 450 miles from the North Pole. Known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, it began as the most ambitious arctic mission in American history, but would end in a perilous voyage of forced retreat, brewing mutiny, starvation and cannibalism. More than 120 years later, a team of scientists, field guides and Greely's great, great grandson set out to retrace the expedition's story by kayak, as well as examine the legacy of Greely and the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. ABANDONED IN THE ARCTIC chronicles their modern-day journey while weaving in the historical retelling of the Greely expedition through narration, voice actor readings of diary entries and letters, re-enactment and archival photographs.