1971. A nation stands divided over the escalating war in Vietnam. Thousands of young Americans lie dead on foreign soil. And at Fort Polk, Louisiana, thousands more prepare to join them.

The specter of combat hangs over the men of A-Company, Second Platoon, as they enter the final stage of infantry training. They will be sent to the war. But each man deals with this prospect in his own way. Private Jim Paxton (Matt Davis), notebook in hand, expects the war to inform his writing – a romantic notion drawn from Hemingway and James Jones. Miter (Clifton Collins, Jr.) hopes to prove himself as a man. Cantwell (Thomas Guiry) simply resigns himself to the inevitable. And Wilson (Shea Whigham), with disturbing zeal, lusts for battle.