In rural Mississippi, just before Pearl Harbor, brothers Pete (Ben Allison), about 19, and Willie (Jonathan Furr), about 10 years younger, are close. News arrives of America's entry into the Second World War, and Pete goes to enlist. Willie wants to come along, but is told he cannot. After his big brother leaves, the boy walks 30 miles to the nearest town, where the sheriff (Mike Pniewski) eventually puts him on a bus to Memphis where his brother is. At the recruiting office, Willie proves even more determined to see his brother. Eventually, sympathetic Colonel McKellog (Ron Perlman) takes care of him.