In 1967, when lieutenant Sandy O'Connell begins nursing on an Air Force base in America's heartland, a dying pilot tells her, "Laggards come home from war with stories to tell; true heroes are rendered speechless." Little does Sandy know that she will soon become one of the silent few. Falling into the exciting social life of a fighter pilot training base, Sandy struggles to stay true to her small town values as her friends fly off to war. Flight nurse Penny obtains a front row seat to the Tet Offensive while Kate, a senator's daughter, falls into the party scene on the China Sea, and university professor Dave becomes embroiled in the protest movement. From America's Heartland to the jungles of Vietnam, from the innocence of the nineteen fifties to the sexual revolution of the sixties, these four young Americans probe virgin territories of the heart as they struggle to make sense of an unforgivable war.