Content Warning: This section of the guide references depictions of war, including trauma and injuries sustained during war, specifically amputation. This section also discusses violence and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Seventeen-year-old Jolene Larsen’s parents drink and fight constantly. On Valentine’s Day 1982, after an argument, Jolene hears her mother scream and her father leave. She creeps downstairs and sees her mother smoking a cigarette on the couch. Her father returns, and the couple embrace. They get into his logging truck and drive away, leaving Jolene alone again. As Jolene stands in the driveway in the rain, an officer arrives and tells Jolene her parents are dead.

On her 41st birthday, National Guard helicopter pilot Jolene Zarkades wakes before dawn and goes for a seven-mile run. She returns home and watches the news for updates about the Iraq War. She is relieved to learn none of her friends have died overnight. Her two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, wish Jolene a happy birthday. Betsy says their father, Michael, has already left for work, which surprises Jolene.

After taking her daughters to school, Jolene returns to her neighborhood and picks up her best friend, Tami Flynn, who lives next door.