A drama set in the 1940s that depicts the lives of a group of soldiers returning to their midwest town of River Run in the Midwest after World War II. Women such as Anne Metcalf and her daughter Linda are sent home from their factory jobs to make room for the returning men. Anne s son Jeff has fallen for Sarah Brewer, his returning brother Hank s fiancee, but she marries Hank regardless. The wealthy Sloan family mourn the death of their son, Mike Jr, and find it difficult to accept his widowed Italian bride, Gina, into their family, yet the expectation of their son s unborn child forces them to cope with the situation. Ginger Szabo is left alone when her fiance Charlie returns with a new English bride Caroline. Soon she and Jeff Metcalf find solace for their respective broken hearts in each other. Abe and Gloria Davis, the Sloan s housekeeper, hope that their son Robert s combat record will allow him to overcome racial discrimination and make a life for himself. Conflicting interests culminate in power struggles and union strikes at the Sloan factory.