World War II is over, and millions of Gls forever changed by the war return to a nation far different from the one they left. Among them are three Marines: Bill (Robert Mitchum), an easygoing cowpoke with a silver plate in his head and a dream of buying a ranch; Perry (Bill Williams), a once-promising boxer who lost his legs in combat; and the youngest, Cliff (Guy Madison), who went to war a boy and came back a man. Once home, Cliff meets a gentle war widow (Dorothy McGuire) as profoundly altered by the conflict as any of the men. Their four stories intertwine in a portrait of people -- and a nation -- uncertain about the future and grappling with the past.