Reflections of the way life used to be.
Dateline: November 1967. Within klicks of Danang, Vietnam, sits a U.S. Army base, bar and hospital on China Beach filled with wounded soldiers and one very lovely but damaged Army Nurse Colleen McMurphy. Many heroes, dead and alive, try to make sense of life and death in between bourbon, bullets and battles.
In 1985, a reunion between Boonie and Dr. Richard stirs up memories of their first meeting in Vietnam in 1966. It also brings up questions for Boonie's 18-year-old adopted daughter, Karen.
Still in 1985, Karen learns how her natural mother, KC, coped with her pregnancy by turning to Boonie for help.
In Saigon in 1967, KC gives birth with McMurphy's help and gives the baby over to a foster mother.
While attending his father's funeral in 1985, Beckett reflects on his childhood and his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Graves Registration Unit.
In 1970, McMurphy returns home to Lawrence, Kansas to make peace with her mother and try to settle down into civilian life, but finds both goals beyond her grasp.
In 1972, Dr. Richard and his nurse take a romantic trip to Florida, where they run across a hard-livng McMurphy working at an orange-juice factory.
In 1969, China Beach watches from afar as the first men land on the moon. McMurphy simmers jealously as Dr. Richard falls for a new nurse. Beckett entertains a group of USO singers in his G.R.U. hut. A disturbed Boonie meets with a tragic accident.
Suddenly back home and missing one leg, Boonie begins a slow and painful re-entry into civilian life with the comfort of a loving nurse.
Frankie returns to Chicago in 1969 to try her hand at being a standup comic but runs into the tragically funny trial of the infamous Chicago Seven. Back in Vietnam, McMurphy tries to help Dodger convince some Montagnard tribes people to evacuate their homes.
McMurphy meets a sympathetic drummer at a 1983 wedding and recalls the 1969 wedding of Lila and Sarge Pepper, as well as the end of her relationship with Dr. Richard.
The imminent fall of Saigon reunites KC with her daughter as she struggles to get the little girl out of Vietnam and safely to America and a waiting Boonie. In the 1980s, a cynical McMurphy tries to prevent further child abuse in New Mexico.
The arrival in Bangkok in 1969 of a hard-drinking McMurphy and a young private disrupts KC's carefully developed new life and brings back unwanted memories.
In 1976, McMurphy helps KC re-enter the country and find her daughter before heading out to Montana to visit Dodger, who's coping with a disabled father and raising his son Archie alone.
In 1985, Karen begins a videotape project interviewing China Beach veterans about their experiences in Vietnam and their memories of her natural mother.
In 1985, an increasingly angry Colleen torments herself and her husband until she discovers she's suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and seeks help to deal with the memories of her final weeks in Vietnam.
McMurphy agrees to attend a China Beach reunion planned by Boonie and recalls her last day in Vietnam, and travels to Washington DC with the others to visit the Vietnam Memorial. Karen comes to terms with the ghost of her absent mother, KC.
McMurphy agrees to attend a China Beach reunion planned by Boonie and recalls her last day in Vietnam, and travels to Washington DC with the others to visit the Vietnam Memorial. Karen comes to terms with the ghost of her absent mother, KC.
