A seven-year-old plantation heir overhears his mother and her friend discuss the allure of black women. He then discovers a dark secret about his family tree, which leads him to a breaking point.

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.

A wounded soldier takes refuge in a cathedral and ponders his disillusionment with religion, which slowly wanes as he dies.

During WWII, an American paratrooper deployed in England misses his wife, but finds himself feeling closer to her after enjoying the company of another woman.

In the U.S. army, the friendship between two Mexican recruits is born of their shared love for music. Tragedy strikes the pair, leaving only one behind with no music left in him.

An old man looks back on his boyhood idolization of a soldier he sees in the parade - until his hero is forced off the pedestal after trying to steal a prized horse from the boy's father.

An auxiliary naval officer posted on night watch is forced to reflect on the life he left behind and his failed dreams.

A sergeant looks forward to leaving the harshness of the barracks and going home to his wife, but is unable to feel truly at home until the rain provides the illusion of distance from the outside world.

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.

An American colonel posted in post-war China dislikes his younger colleague intensely, but does not know why until he realizes he is being taunted about his advanced age - an act of disdain familiar to him because he was guilty of it in his own youth.