Contemporary drama dealing with an orphaned teenager trapped in an antiquated juvenile disciplinary system and the efforts of the institution's superintendent and a sympathetic teacher to get that system changed.

A group of working-class friends decide to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War and finds it to be hellish chaos -- not the noble venture they imagined. Before they left, Steven married his pregnant girlfriend -- and Michael and Nick were in love with the same woman. But all three are different men upon their return.