Irene leaves her abusive fiancé in New York to enlist in the Red Cross Clubmobile Service.

Irene and Dorothy meet for the first time during Red Cross training in Washington, DC.

Red Cross assigns Irene, Dorothy, and Ellie to the same Clubmobile truck, named the Rapid City.

A torpedo strikes the ship sailing ahead of theirs as the women cross to England.

Irene meets Hans Vanderwey at the pub in Glatton and pulls away when he tries to kiss her.

D-Day launches and Irene travels to London to help the overwhelmed Red Cross.

Hans finds Irene frozen in shock on the bombed London streets and carries her back to safety.

A Panzer tank destroys the French house where Dorothy and Irene are sheltering, dropping them into the basement.

Dorothy and Irene escape a flooding basement by pushing through the wreckage to the open air above.

Hans and Smitty surprise Dorothy and Irene on the beach in Cannes during their week of leave.

Irene alone comforts soldiers sheltering in a Bastogne basement, singing carols to them on Christmas Eve.

Hans takes a fatal hit during aerial combat, wounded and unable to reach his parachute, and falls from his plane.

Dorothy opens a duffel bag to reveal a rescued baby and asks Irene to drive her to the mountains.

Irene hits a bomb crater in the dark and the Rapid City launches off a cliff and explodes.

Fifty years later, Dorothy and Irene discover each other are both alive and reunite at the Woodward farm.

Irene Woodward escapes her abusive fiancé by enlisting in the Red Cross Clubmobile Service, where she meets Dorothy Dunford, who joined after losing her entire family. Assigned together to a truck called the Rapid City, the two women survive the journey to England and the horrors of the London Blitz, where Irene first connects with fighter pilot Hans Vanderwey. After D-Day, the women follow Allied forces deeper into Europe and survive a devastating tank attack on the French town where they are sheltering. Hans is shot down and killed during the Battle of the Bulge, and Dorothy is soon forced to flee military charges, leading to a mountain road crash that leaves both women certain the other has died. Irene returns to America consumed by grief and survivor's guilt, spending decades alone on the Woodward farm. Fifty years later, an unexpected visitor at her front door reveals that Dorothy survived and the two friends share an emotional reunion that finally brings them peace.

The essential wartime journey of Irene and Dorothy.

A wounded soldier on the train to Washington DC warns Irene that surviving war will change her forever.

Dorothy joins the Red Cross after her entire family dies, including her brother killed at Pearl Harbor.

Captain Miller addresses new volunteers, telling them their calling is as heroic as any soldier's.

Dorothy and Irene are the only two women to successfully pass the gas chamber training exercise.

German bombers attack the train carrying Dorothy and Irene to London, setting the carriage ahead on fire.

Ellie leaves the service and returns home; Rusty assigns Dorothy and Irene to serve the Glatton air base.

Irene organizes a talent show at the Glatton air base to ease tension among the pilots.

The Rapid City truck finally arrives at the base, giving Dorothy and Irene their long-awaited mobile home.

Soldiers confide traumatic wartime secrets to Dorothy and Irene in nightly sessions the women call the Great Unburdening.

Dorothy and Irene pass a column of German POWs on a French road; Dorothy raises her middle finger at them.

Dorothy and Irene encounter resistance fighter Colette, a woman who carries a machine gun and kills German soldiers.

Rusty and Holly marry in a small ceremony before the unit moves forward into Belgium.

Dorothy goes out with the Gray Ghosts on a night raid and shoots a German colonel.

Garcia shoots the German soldier who had earlier entered the house and threatened to kill Dorothy and Irene.

Garcia visits Irene in the field hospital and reveals that Hans has been reported missing in action.

Before the women reach the front lines, a wounded veteran on a train warns Irene of war's true cost, while Dorothy's personal grief over her brother's death at Pearl Harbor drives her toward service. Their training, early friendships, and first assignments in England form the foundation of who they become, from surviving a gas chamber exercise to finally receiving the Rapid City truck they will call home. As they push into France, the weight of soldiers' nightly confessions accumulates, and a chance encounter with resistance fighter Colette plants the seeds of Dorothy's desire to take direct action in the war. The women navigate complex relationships with officers like Rusty, support Holly through her brief wartime marriage, and face the growing threat of sexual harassment from the troops they serve. In the final stretch, Dorothy carries out a deadly Gray Ghosts night raid, and a hospital visit from Garcia delivers the crushing news about Hans that breaks Irene's heart.

The people, milestones, and behind-the-scenes moments that shaped the women's war.

Hans performs with a band at the Glatton talent show and wins the prize money.

Hans serenades Irene outside her bedroom window by throwing pebbles and singing to her at night.

Hans sits outside Irene's bathroom door after the London bombing and teaches her to survive by counting her days.

A German soldier breaks into the French house where Dorothy and Irene hide, threatens to kill them, then leaves.

Dorothy tells Irene that she declares Irene to be her new family as they travel through France.

Dorothy confides to Irene that her anger has grown uncontrollable and she does not know how to handle it.

Dorothy admits she secretly wrote to invite Hans to join Irene during their week of leave in Cannes.

Hans buys a vendor's entire supply of octopi so that Irene can release them into the ocean.

Hans tells Irene he wants to rename his fighter plane after the way she signs her letters to him.

Irene takes a turn firing a cannon at the front and realizes with horror she is shooting at real people.

Dorothy feels only guilt after killing the German colonel, not the relief she had desperately expected.

Dorothy discovers a building at the concentration camp filled with victims' personal belongings and breaks down sobbing over a pile of shoes.

Swede insults Irene; Dorothy attacks him and is later warned she will face a military investigation.

Irene begs nurses in the field hospital for morphine, overwhelmed by guilt that she caused Dorothy's death.

Irene asks Hans for courage, then opens her front door and takes Dorothy's face in her hands.

The romance between Irene and Hans begins with small, charged moments — a talent show performance, a late-night serenade, and a London bathroom door where Hans teaches Irene to count each surviving day as a victory. Key emotional shifts follow as Dorothy confides her unmanageable anger, and a surprise invitation to Cannes reveals how deeply she loves Irene by secretly arranging a final week with Hans. After the tenderness of Cannes, the war strips both women bare, from Irene's horror at realizing she has been firing a cannon at real people to Dorothy's unexpected guilt over killing an enemy officer. The concentration camp visit shatters them completely, setting off a chain of events — an attack on Swede, a duffel bag containing a baby, and a dark mountain road — that ends with Irene stranded in a field hospital and drowning in self-blame. Decades of isolation follow for both women until the afternoon Dorothy walks up a familiar porch, and Irene chooses to open the door and finally forgive herself.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that defined the two women's fates.