Dale Destel is home on leave from Marine boot camp in 1963. The Vietnam war he is likely to be shipped out to is barely known back home, with most of the people in Dale's hometown uncertain where in the world it is. Dale and his friends and family celebrate at a party in honor of his shipping out, and while most of the people Dale knows seem either oblivious or ignorant of the war, Dale has an increasing foreboding about what will happen to him when he arrives there. A late-night visit to a bar and an angry bartender give Dale a new insight into what his future might be.