China Beach

Its November 1967 and nurse Colleen McMurphy faces the last week of her tour of duty in Vietnam, dealing as usual with the dying boys, primitive conditions, and the sexual pressure from pilot Natch Austin. USO singers Georgia Lee and Laurette Barber arrive to entertain the troops in the bases new R&R center. Brand new Red Cross volunteer Cherry White also arrives, determined to find her brother, a marine no one can locate.

Laurette auditions local entertainers to fill in the act and McMurphy struggles to overcome her feelings when a Viet Cong woman who was responsible for blowing up a friend is brought into the hospital for treatment.

Lila, Cherry and Laurette find themselves pinned down with a combat squad whose leader is not dealing with reality. Back at China Beach, KC and a frightened Boonie prepare to mount a rescue mission. Dr. Richard is injured just before hes scheduled to leave for R&R in Hawaii with Beth Ann.

Laurette faces an important audition with laryngitis. Beckett battles the pressure of racial prejudice and financial coercion when he discovers someone has been using the body bags in his GRU. Dr. Richard returns from R&R in Hawaii disillusioned by the perceived changes in his wife. Dodger finally finds Rick, Cherrys long-lost brother.

Lila takes over command of China Beach and orders KC off the base. McMurphy finally lets herself admit how much she cares for Natch when she receives some disturbing news about him. Wayloo Marie Holmes, former Saigon weather girl, arrives at China Beach to handle her first journalism assignment, extolling the recreational facilities at the base.

McMurphy continues her vigil by Dodgers bedside as he stays in a coma. KC agrees to get Boonie some black market penicillin for a native hospital in exchange for his help in building her a beauty salon on base.

McMurphy fights jealousy, envy and fear when a confident woman doctor comes in from the States and takes over Dr. Richard and Dodgers case. Wayloo Marie tries to win a position as a armed forces tv reporter with a report on the war from a womans point of view. Frankie debuts as a disk jockey

Wayloo Marie tries to keep reporting, McMurphy and KC are trapped in an officers restroom, Beckett is held prisoner by Mais brother and Dr. Richard and the wounded Dodger prepare to defend the hospital during the fierce fighting of the 1968 Tet offensive. Cherry comforts another Red Cross volunteer at a firebase.

Dr. Richard throws himself into helping a Vietnamese orphanage when his wife Beth Ann serves him with divorce papers. McMurphy tries to reconcile Dodger and herself to his uncertain future after his stay in Japan.

As McMurphys enforced R&R continues with the help of an 18-year-old medic, Boonie tries to recreate a combination spring beach frolic and senior prom. KC warns Boonie that Wayloo Marie has learned part of his story. A chopper pilot shows Frankie that joys of flying.

Wayloo Maries digging results in a medal ceremony for Boonie and an unwelcome investigation into his lost jungle patrol. McMurphy sees Dodger again as he prepares to go back into action. Frankie befriends a captured deserter.

Beckett faces going home when his tour ends in April 1968, as the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr polarizes black-white relations in the nation and at China Beach.

McMurphy reassesses her life as she tries to decide whether or not to return to Vietnam following her fathers death.

McMurphy uses a little guilt and a little blackmail to get a reluctant K.C. to visit a wounded soldier whose face has been badly disfigured. Holly, the new doughnut dolly, challenges the nurses on behalf of the Red Cross Volunteers to compete in a Miss China Beach beauty pageant. Frankie is assigned to the motor pool and runs into Sarge Pepper, whos not very eager to have her there.

Dr. Richard worries over a craniotomy that has permanently altered a patients mental capacity; Lila faces an inspection that will determine if she gets a key promotion; Sarge Pepper asks for some advice about courting Lila and K.C. finds herself in a very awkward position when a senior officer goes AWOL on her permanently.

K.C. avoids dealing with unpleasant memories of her father stirred up by a trunk of his belongings; Dr. Richard faces his ex-wifes remarriage with a ""black wedding""; Beckett ends his relationship with Mai; and McMurphy learns more about Dr. Bernards life.

Dodger and Hyers square off after a battlefield incident; McMurphy spends an uncomfortable evening with Dr. Bernards sophisticated civilian friends; and Boonie gets a surprise from the sexy Asian singer all the men in camp are longing for.

The wounded Cambodian POW befriended by McMurphy is taken away by the South Vietnamese for interrogation as the photographer Cat pursues the story of his defection and a new commander arrives to take over the base, leaving Lila and K.C. unsure of their positions.

K.C. feels responsible for the death of a Vietnamese prostitute she sent out and takes things into her own hands when Otis refuses to investigate the matter.

Holly has had an abortion and as her friends at China Beach try to deal with it, the circumstances that led up to it are gradually revealed.

McMurphy is in an emotional and ethical turmoil when she delivers Vinnies buddy from death but he falls into a terminal coma; and Frankie finds herself in charge of a squad of grizzled grunts.

A pair of ballroom dancers bring a note of grace and harmony to the uneasy relationship between McMurphy and Dr. Richard while completing a mysterious mission of their own.

In November 1966, fairly new guys Colleen McMurphy and Dr. Richard find themselves learning the ropes when they arrive at China Beach.

With everyone else away for a distant USO show, K.C. and McMurphy indulge in an alcoholic binge that takes them to a dreamy landscape where a Native American guide tries to help them heal past and present wounds.

Still in 1985, Karen learns how her natural mother, KC, coped with her pregnancy by turning to Boonie for help.

While attending his fathers funeral in 1985, Beckett reflects on his childhood and his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Graves Registration Unit.

In 1972, Dr. Richard and his nurse take a romantic trip to Florida, where they run across a hard-livng McMurphy working at an orange-juice factory.

Suddenly back home and missing one leg, Boonie begins a slow and painful re-entry into civilian life with the comfort of a loving nurse.

McMurphy meets a sympathetic drummer at a 1983 wedding and recalls the 1969 wedding of Lila and Sarge Pepper, as well as the end of her relationship with Dr. Richard.

The arrival in Bangkok in 1969 of a hard-drinking McMurphy and a young private disrupts KCs carefully developed new life and brings back unwanted memories.

In 1985, Karen begins a videotape project interviewing China Beach veterans about their experiences in Vietnam and their memories of her natural mother.

McMurphy agrees to attend a China Beach reunion planned by Boonie and recalls her last day in Vietnam, and travels to Washington DC with the others to visit the Vietnam Memorial. Karen comes to terms with the ghost of her absent mother, KC.