In Florida, the wives of three soldiers declared missing or killed in the Vietnam War, Mary Kaye Buell, Sandy Lawton and Sharon Dornbeck, drive to the Miami airport to meet one returning husband, each woman reflecting on her personal past: Seven years earlier, Mary Kaye learns that her husband has gone missing in action and struggles to maintain a brave front for their four children, Joe, Kathy, Pete and Julie. Joe, the eldest, becomes hostile toward his mother, however, when he discovers that his father enlisted only after a bitter quarrel with Mary Kaye. Over time, the lonely Mary Kaye grows friendly with physical education teacher Phil Garrett and Joe grows increasingly bitter. Meanwhile, Sandy is married to Lt. Roy Lawton only two weeks before he is shipped out and soon after, he is declared missing. Feeling that she barely knew Roy, Sandy does not resist her attraction to Alan Webber, a former NASA computer programmer who has been laid off and forced to work as a gas station attendant. Eventually Sandy moves in with Alan although she continues to have mixed emotions about Roy’s situation. Married to a third generation Air Force soldier, Sharon remains diligently hopeful even after receiving a report that her husband has been killed in action. Drawn together by their common experience and desperate hopes to learn more about their husbands, Mary Kaye, Sandy and Sharon become friends and soon after fly to Paris to meet a North Vietnamese delegation at a peace conference. Instead of providing details about prisoners, however, delegate members show the wives a film of the atrocities committed by American soldiers on Vietnamese citizens, including children. Later, when asked to appear before a House Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C. Mary Kaye declares her staunch opposition to the war. When Sharon receives an eyewitness confirmation of her husband’s death, she comes close to a nervous breakdown. Soon after, Mary Kaye also learns that her husband has been killed, a tragedy which nevertheless brings her and young Joe back together. Receiving news that Roy is being released from a war prison, Sandy breaks off her relationship with Alan, but unable to tell him, asks Mary Kaye to break the news to him. As the women arrive at the Miami airport to meet Roy, Mary Kaye and Sharon watch as Sandy greets the weakened stranger that is her husband.