The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Hannah, Kristin. The Women. St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2024. Kindle Edition

The Women opens as Finley McGrath is preparing to go off to war. His family is throwing a goodbye party for him, and he and his friends come in inebriated. His family is very proud of him, as all male members of his family are expected to serve in the military. Only his father, Connor, was prohibited from doing so. Frankie McGrath, the protagonist of the novel, goes into her father’s study to look at his heroes’ wall where he has hung photos of male family members in war. Finley’s friend, Rye, comes in and tells Frankie that women can be heroes as well. She takes this to heart and decides to use her nursing degree to join the Army as a nurse. Frankie expects her parents to be proud of this decision, but they are horrified. Shortly after she tells them this, they get word that Finley has been killed in war, and there are no remains.

Frankie arrives in Vietnam disoriented and feeling unprepared. She gets sick immediately from drinking the water. Eventually she makes it to her hooch where she meets her roommates, Ethel and Barb, who show her the ropes. Frankie is stationed at an Evac Hospital. There she works on the neuro ward and betters her nursing skills on the mostly comatose patients. Eventually Jamie, a doctor, asks her to work in his operating room, and she makes the move and improves her skills in the process. The two fall in love, but Frankie refuses to acknowledge this love or pursue a romance because Jamie is married. Eventually Jamie’s helicopter is shot down, and Frankie sees his injuries and assumes he will die as a result of them as he is airlifted out.

Eventually Frankie is sent to Pleiku known as Rocket City. This is far more dangerous than her first location. She has decided to re-enlist for another year because she knows she is doing good there. While in Pleiku she reunites with Rye. The two develop feelings for each other, but again, she refuses a relationship because he is engaged. Ultimately he tells her that he broke off his engagement and the two begin a romance while on R&R. Frankie finishes her second tour and goes home to wait less than a month for Rye to finish his tour, but she learns that he has been killed in action and there are no remains.

Frankie struggles when she returns from Vietnam. The people in America are outwardly hostile to her when they know she is a veteran. Her parents are not proud of her service and want her to put it all behind her. They do not understand her nightmares or her other trauma responses. She works as a nurse in multiple places but loses multiple jobs over the years because she steps out of line. She keeps in touch with Ethel and Barb, and they come to her aid when she is most needy. The three live together on Ethel’s farm for a while, but eventually Frankie leaves to help care for her mother after her mother has a stroke.

Eventually Frankie enters into a relationship with a man named Henry who works in the mental health field. He has seen her symptoms in other veterans. The two conceive a baby and decide to get married. While they are engaged, however, Frankie learns that Rye is alive when she sees him return with other POWs on television. She goes to meet him at the airport, but he greets his wife and child instead. He lied to her about being single. Frankie loses the baby and breaks off her relationship with Henry. She begins a relationship with Rye who keeps telling her that he will leave his wife, but this relationship ends when she learns that his wife has just had a baby.

Frankie succumbs to alcohol and drug abuse as she has an ever increasingly difficult time handling life. At one point she almost kills a man when she drives drunk. Another time, she almost drowns in the ocean and wakes up in an ambulance with her father. She is taken to Henry’s treatment facility, and she spends time there healing, finally able to talk about her experiences in Vietnam. When she leaves, she moves to Montana and buys a ranch that becomes a refuge for other female veterans of Vietnam. When she goes to the unveiling of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., she finds her brother’s name, and she sees Jamie, alive and well and divorced from his wife.