After a drunk college boy falls off a balcony, a slew of characters--a groundskeeper, another student, a chaplain, and an RA--relate to his death in different ways. Their stories are sidelined for the core matter: that a boy died.

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

An American veteran who watched his friend drown in a field of excrement in Vietnam drives in circles around the lake in his hometown ruminating on how he might have saved his friend, won a Silver Star for valor, and made his father proud.

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

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.

After struggling to appeal to their state governor, a dysfunctional family anxiously awaits the public execution of a relative. As they wait at home new of the execution, tensions and strife erupt in a dispute over the relative's innocence.

An encounter with a grieving ex-soldier forces a Women's Army Corps member to realize the army may have robbed her of her ability to see death as anything but a necessary sacrifice.

Upon hearing about an upcoming wedding, a former American soldier reminisces about the time he met a young girl who gave him the recourse to survive the war.

A soldier is mistakenly informed of his estranged mother's death, and though he is aware of the mistake, he chooses to take the opportunity to mend his relationship with her.

In limbo between life and death after falling five hundred feet into a cement mixer, a construction worker reflects on the nature of love.