Eleanor, Penny, and Lita meet at the Army Navy Club and forge a friendship they celebrate with monthly HAM Day gatherings.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and supervisor Laura Cobb wakes the nurses, declaring war and ordering them immediately to the hospital.

The Army nurses evacuate Manila under Japanese fire, and their ferry sinks moments after they disembark at Corregidor.

Charley gives Penny his battle flag and kisses her, promising to find her when the war ends.

Japanese officer Akibo holds a knife to Penny's throat and takes her gold necklace, threatening to make her his property.

Japanese forces declare Eleanor and the Navy nurses at Santa Scholastica prisoners of war and transfer them to Santo Tomas.

The Filipina nurses are separated from the American nurses in Manila and imprisoned at Bilibid Prison as traitors.

Lita convinces Reyna to sign the Japanese loyalty oath, persuading the remaining holdouts and securing all the Filipina nurses' freedom.

Akibo proposes Penny become his mistress in exchange for food and protection; she refuses, saying she values honor over power.

The Kempeitai arrest Lita at the convent orphanage, charging her with treason for smuggling medical supplies to Resistance prisoners.

New quartermaster Konishi cuts rations at Los Baños to near-starvation levels and lets food deliveries rot in the sun.

US tanks break down the gates of Santo Tomas; Japanese guards surrender, but Akibo refuses and is shot in the chest.

Penny kneels beside the dying Akibo, unclasps her necklace from around his neck, and declares she owes him nothing.

US forces and Filipino guerrillas liberate Los Baños on a dawn raid, loading prisoners onto amphibious tractors to safety.

The three women reunite in Manila years after the war, celebrating their friendship and the lives they rebuilt.

Three nurses forge an immediate friendship in Manila just months before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor turns their world upside down. As Japanese forces sweep through the Philippines, Eleanor, Penny, and Lita are separated, imprisoned, and forced to endure years of brutal deprivation across different camps. Penny faces constant threats from the predatory officer Akibo while secretly working with the Resistance and protecting a young orphan, while Lita is eventually arrested and tried for treason for smuggling medical supplies. Eleanor and the Navy nurses, left behind by their own military, become among the first female prisoners of the war. When Allied forces finally return to the Philippines, each woman survives liberation tested but unbroken. Their reunion in Manila years later stands as a testament to the courage and friendship that carried them through.

The war's defining moments and the nurses' path from paradise to imprisonment and liberation.

Eleanor arrives in Manila and is greeted by Ensign David Mathis, who directs her to the Cavite Naval Yard.

Japanese bombers destroy Cavite Naval Yard and the nurses are given 36 hours to evacuate to Santa Scholastica College.

Lita's military convoy passes rows of white crosses marking the American dead on the Bataan Peninsula.

Lita attends Cassie's birthday party, misreads Lon McGibbons' offer to massage her sore back, and soon collapses with malaria.

Penny meets with Maude Davison and General Wainwright, who reveal that seaplanes will evacuate only a handful of people from Corregidor.

Penny meets Newt, a resourceful 10-year-old war orphan who pickpockets Japanese guards and attaches herself to Penny at Santo Tomas.

Maude takes Penny to meet Ida Hube, a wealthy German woman who smuggles food and supplies into the internment camp.

Laura Cobb volunteers the Navy nurses to care for prisoners at the remote Los Baños jungle camp, and Eleanor agrees to go.

At Philippine General Hospital, Lita tricks a Japanese soldier named Yamada into revealing he is a Japanese-born Canadian who speaks English.

Penny receives a hollow coconut containing a secret letter from Charley and hidden cash, renewing her hope for survival.

The Japanese discover Father Domingo's smuggling tunnel, shoot him, and throw his body into the burning chapel.

Newt vomits stolen grass and cold cream all over herself and Penny, disgusting the soldiers searching for the hidden radio.

Lita, Penny, and Reyna defy orders and sneak out of Santo Tomas to rescue Sister Cecilia and the orphaned children from the convent.

Penny says a tearful goodbye to Newt as the Army nurses prepare to leave and gives Newt her gold nugget necklace.

Penny returns to Texas and finds Charley waiting on her porch, fulfilling his wartime promise to come back for her.

From Eleanor's arrival in a paradise-like Manila to the devastating Japanese assault that ends peacetime life, these events trace the smaller but crucial moments that defined the nurses' wartime experiences. Each woman navigates unfamiliar dangers—malaria on Bataan, interrogations in Manila, starvation in the jungle—while finding unexpected sources of strength in friends and strangers alike. Penny and Lita connect with the underground Resistance through figures like Ida Hube and Father Domingo, whose murder at the hands of the Japanese is a devastating blow to their cause. The orphaned child Newt becomes a symbol of hope and maternal love for Penny, while Lita's discovery of the soldier Yamada's secret identity plants a seed that will later save her life. A hidden radio, a hollow coconut, and a daring nighttime rescue of orphaned children illustrate the extraordinary resourcefulness and courage of women history largely overlooked. The resolution of each woman's story reflects the choices she made to rebuild her life around what she found most meaningful during the war.

The nurses' daily struggles, hidden acts of courage, and moments of humanity amid the war.

Penny first encounters Captain Charley Russell at the Army Navy Club, where he notices the missing wedding ring on her finger.

Lita wakes from malaria at Bataan and Lon visits, sharing personal confessions before bombers interrupt their first almost-kiss.

Penny and Charley share a quiet cigarette at the Malinta Tunnel entrance as he asks what she personally needs.

Dr. Nance performs emergency surgery on a Japanese patient at Los Baños, and Laura Cobb warns him never to risk her nurses again.

Lon bribes a guard to secretly reunite with Lita at Bilibid Prison and tells her he loves her.

Lita confronts Reyna at Bilibid and discovers that Reyna resents her for becoming a nurse only to immigrate to America.

Eleanor reconnects with David Mathis at a Los Baños baseball game and builds a friendship that becomes her primary source of hope.

Lita witnesses the public execution of Dr. Alvarez for collaborating with the Resistance, just after agreeing to smuggle for Father Domingo.

Kempeitai officers interrogate and torture Lita over three days while Yamada, who recognizes her, pretends not to see her.

Lita is tried for treason; a secret report from Yamada through his uncle spares her life and reduces her sentence to hard labor.

Reyna confesses at the labor camp that she gave Lita's name to the Kempeitai under torture, and Lita tearfully forgives her.

David is shot while sneaking food into Los Baños camp and dies telling Eleanor she was his best friend.

A Red Cross mail delivery at Santo Tomas yields a long-delayed letter from John Olson addressed to Eleanor, which Penny guards carefully.

Penny gives Eleanor John Olson's letter; Eleanor learns he called off his engagement and waited for her return all along.

Lita chooses to stay in the Philippines to care for the orphans, and she and Lon say a bittersweet farewell.

Before the war reshapes their lives, the seeds of the nurses' most important relationships are planted in small, telling moments—a missing wedding ring noticed, a first confession shared, a cigarette offered in darkness. As the conflict deepens, each woman faces a turning point that forces her to confront who she truly is: Lita learns the truth behind Reyna's long-standing hostility and discovers her own capacity for forgiveness; Eleanor finds in David Mathis the embodiment of hope she struggles to sustain; and Penny slowly opens her heart despite grief and fear. The war's cruelest revelations—David's fatal shooting, Lita's torture and trial, the long-delayed letter from John Olson—push each woman to her limit and expose her deepest strength. Betrayals are forgiven, secret alliances are revealed, and each nurse is transformed by what she chose to do when she had the least power. Their final decisions reflect how profoundly these extraordinary circumstances changed three ordinary lives.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that transformed three ordinary nurses into extraordinary women.