Fifteen members of the United States Marines tell stories about their time serving in Europe during World War I.

Speaking of his past experiences, a Vietnam War veteran describes the darker, unspoken details of life as a soldier that people often overlook.

A war photographer comes face to face with the senseless violence and death of the Spanish Civil War after spending time in the trenches with soldiers and decides he cannot stomach it.

A group of Marines recall their horrifying memories of fighting on the Pacific front of World War II, while a journalist attempts to glorify their experiences for his readers.

In England during World War II, a literary critic turned war correspondent finds himself face to face with his own mortality on an air raid mission.

A veteran tells his acquaintance about his darkest memories as a solider the Vietnam War.

Separated from his unit, an American soldier in France forms an unexpected partnership with a man who seems equally lost. Their adventures eventually lead them back to their unit, but not before they shoot down parachuters that may or may not have been their own men.

To hear his friends and readers tell it, an American war correspondent based in Saigon is losing touch with reality. But to him, the opposite is true. Through studies of the Vietnamese people and fantastical letters to his children, he alternately tries to confront and embrace the world as it truly is.

A current university professor and former soldier sits serenely in his office until two students, who are actually his former army colleagues, enter for essay help. The three boys discuss a possible essay topic about a real attack that involved of the army lieutenants of their time.

A teenage Marine recruit befriends another recruit who dreams of becoming a a New York City artist. Together, they fight in the Vietnam War: he develops epilepsy, and his friend dies.