Stacey Dooley travels to America to explore the bittersweet world of open adoption. The majority of private adoptions in America are 'open', and encourage birth parents to pick the adoptive parents themselves and to stay in touch with their child as they grow up. Over several months, Stacey spends time with two young pregnant women who are planning an open adoption and tries to understand what it takes to make one of the toughest imaginable decisions; to give your baby away in the hope it will have a better life with different parents.

Stacey Dooley travels to Detroit to find out how homeless people are managing to survive in a bankrupt city that has around 70,000 abandoned buildings and is struggling to support its population. She arrives during the coldest winter the city has seen for over 20 years, when shelters are being pushed to the limit to accommodate the almost 20,000 homeless people living here. Whilst spending time in shelters, Stacey meets the young people who had nowhere else to turn and sees how they have been affected by life on the streets, in ways she had never expected.

Stacey Dooley travels to Chicago, the murder capital of the US, where almost half of those killed in 2013 were under 25. She meets the Hardman family, struggling to come to terms with the murder of their 19-year-old daughter Ashley, killed in the crossfire of a gang shooting. In a prison boot camp for young offenders, Stacey gets to know David. He's been in prison four times already and he's just 19. He got his first gun at 14. Can he really turn his back on the gang lifestyle?