From a snowy small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to the mountains of Afghanistan and back, the film follows the four-year journey of childhood friends Dominic, Cole, and Matt, forever changed by a faraway war. Enticed by a signing bonus and college tuition support, the friends join the National Guard after high school and are sent to Afghanistan, spending their days sweeping for roadside bombs (IEDs). By the end of deployment, repeated bomb blasts have led to Traumatic Brain Injury symptoms and mounting disillusionment; the real challenges surface when they return home and struggle to reintegrate into their families and rural community.