In the small town of Palm Shores, Florida, 22 year old Janine Ancheta is looking for a way to pay for her college education. Her hopes and dreams of managing her father's popular bar have been shattered by his sudden death, and Janine realizes that joining the Marines is her best option for a better life and a free education. But she will soon learn the high cost of enlistment in the Marine Corps.

After 13 long, tough weeks of basic training, Janine is issued a M16 rifle and deployed overseas to the war-torn country of Iraq for the next 12 months. There, she will need to rely on the many life lessons she learned from her parents and her uncle, a former career Marine himself, to navigate life and war...and her own survival.