A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.
The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret Grey. His amnesia also makes him a ready target for the affections of his older cousin, Jenny.
During the start of the Pacific campaign in World War II, Lieutenant Janet Davidson is the head of a group of U.S. military nurses who are trapped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Davidson tries to keep up the spirits of her staff, which includes Lieutenants Joan O'Doul and Olivia D'Arcy. They all seek to maintain a sense of normal life, including dating, while under constant danger as they tend to wounded soldiers.
Stefan Radetzky, a Polish pilot and famous concert pianist, is hospitalised in England from injuries sustained while in combat, and having lost his memory. As Radetzky plays the piano in a trance-like state, the story moves back in time to war-torn Warsaw. During an air-raid, Radetzky meets American journalist Carole, and there is a mutual attraction. Following the fall of Poland, Radetzky and Irish pilot, Mike, escape to Rumania and then on to America. Radetzky continues his musical career in America and meets up again with Carole.
Untrained, volunteer Nurses from America treat Allied soldiers behind and on the lines in France. They face the horrors of war, fight off the attentions of soldiers and face their own loneliness.
An investigator is asking Mrs. Gubbins about a William Foster, who was a friend of her stepson Jimmy. Both are listed as killed in action during the Great War. It is Armistice Day, 1918, and the war is over. Who should be strolling down the street but Jimmy Gubbins, Bill 'Jones' and another man who has lost his memory. They are ghosts as the official records list them as dead and not as escaped P.O.W's. Jimmy's mother is not happy to see that Jimmy is still living as she has been spending the death benefits, but she is happy to see Bill as there is a large reward for him. No one knows much about the third one, called 'Spoofy', except that he can steal anything at anytime and that gets everyone is trouble.
The final entry in a trilogy of films produced for the U.S. government by John Huston. Some returning combat veterans suffer scars that are more psychological than physical. This film follows patients and staff during their treatment. It deals with what would now be called PTSD, but at the time was categorised as psychoneurosis or shell-shock. Government officials deemed this 1946 film counterproductive to postwar efforts; it was not shown publicly until 1981.
After the suppression of "Let There Be Light" (a documentary about combat-induced post-traumatic stress disorders which presented many inconvenient and demoralizing truths), the U.S. Army Signal Corp created this dramatized up-beat remake of the film. Only this time, the production excluded the involvement of John Houston, the producer of the original documentary.
A shell-shocked black soldier is cared for by a miner and his daughter when he wanders into their camp, and makes a fresh start in life with the aid of the American Legion.