When her brother is killed in Viet Nam, twenty year old Frankie McGrath decides to carry on the family tradition and enlists in the army as a nurse. She leaves her upper-middle class California lifestyle for a chaotic, challenging, exhausting, dangerous life. And as difficult as it is in Viet Nam, it is even harder for Frankie when she returns home.

The novel is divided into two parts-before and after Viet Nam. I thought the first part of The Women was good. It vividly described the horrors of that war. However, for me, the second part dragged on, and Frankie seemed to have every negative experience possible for a returning vet. Also, Kristin Hannah frequently describes the clothes,hair styles and songs of that era. I felt it took away from the plot.