Two couples on an Army base in Georgia in the mid-1950s. A beautiful German woman (Eija Pokkinen) is desperately trying to save her crumbling marriage to a black Master Sergeant (Paul Benjamin). He finds himself in mid-life trapped in a marriage with a woman he has nothing in common with - she does not share his love of books and art and seems only attracted to his sensuality. Yet, his sense of responsibility will not allow him to leave a woman he no longer loves. The second couple's story is a bittersweet love affair between a young private (James Woods) and a beautiful older career woman (Bibi Besch). Events turn tragic when the Master Sergeant takes the young private into his personal life, and his own deteriorating marriage.