One of these men is army Sergeant Al Stephenson, an older man who was a banker before the war. He's returning to his wife of twenty or so years, and his daughter and son. Captain Fred Derry was a bomber pilot during the war; he got married about three weeks before he was deployed and is returning home to a wife he barely knows. The third man is Petty Officer Homer Parrish who served aboard an air craft carrier until it was torpedoed; his hands were terribly burned and had to be amputated. Before the war Homer had become engaged to his childhood sweetheart but is now unsure if she will still want him, or if it's right for him to marry her even if she does. The three men hit it off, despite their differences in age, rank, and branch of service, and share a taxi when they leave the airport.
Actually, all three men are headed for trouble of various sorts. Al Stephenson returns to the bank, but struggles to settle back into his desk job. He's put in charge of processing loan applications for returning servicemen and finds it very difficult to be impartial about the applicants. On paper, a lot of them don't qualify for a loan, but having become a good judge of character over the course of the war, Al sees a number of men who he knows would be solid risks. Also, he can't help thinking that these men who gave up years of their lives to protect and defend their nation are owed something from that nation in return. He gets into hot water with his superiors after approving a loan for a veteran who does not meet the bank's financial requirements. Unhappy at work and still struggling to adjust to the changes in his family at home, Al increasingly turns to drink to cope with his troubles while Milly watches with growing concern, unsure how to help.