This work addresses the controversy surrounding Margaret Mead's 1928 book, "Coming of Age in Samoa" in which she described adolescence in Samoa as virtually stress-free. This was attacked in 1983 by Australian anthropologist, Derek Freeman, since which a great deal attention has been paid to the controversy and the subject of adolescent "storm and stress". This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of Freeman's criticisms and an assessment of Mead's work. It tracks the nature of "coming of age" in Samoa, and sets out to show that Mead's Samoa has been lost. Instead, it has become a place where young people experience great difficulty in terms of finding a place in society, to the point where they currently have one of the highest suicide rates in the world.