Afghanistan, 2016 – Two army mechanics, Merit Charles (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Zoe Ramirez (Natalie Morales), are in a van listening to the song “Umbrella” on Zoe’s busted iPod. They are then bothered by SPC Lewis (Rich Paul), but they both tell them off.

In the present day, Merit is at a court-mandated support group for veterans, with Zoe seemingly joining her. In the middle of another man’s turn to speak, Zoe appears to stand up and go on a rant about the group’s overall purpose. Merit is snapped back to reality by the group’s director, Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman), and Zoe is not really there.

Merit lives alone but hallucinates that Zoe is still alive and living with her like a roommate. Merit gets a call from her mother Kris (Gloria Reuben), who tells her that her widowed grandfather Dale (Ed Harris), a former Lieutenant Colonel, has wandered away from his home, and Kris wants Merit to go check on him. When she goes to find him, she takes him to the doctor, where Dale is diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. Merit decides to stay with him while Kris is making arrangements to put him in a retirement home.

Throughout the group sessions, Merit refuses to talk about what happened with Zoe, as she gets triggered every time she comes close to discussing it, and the vision of Zoe forbids her from talking about it. Some of Merit’s flashbacks imply something happened to Zoe in Afghanistan. As a result, Dr. Cole cannot sign off on Merit’s paperwork for the courts. It is revealed that the reason Merit is in the group is because she caused a near-fatal accident at her job and could face jail time for criminal negligence if she fails with the group.

While out on a run, Merit goes through the cemetery (with Zoe making some comments on the graves) before she meets a man named Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who is cutting weeds. Merit complains to him, but he informs her that his grandparents are buried there and he wants to keep the space neat for them.

Flashbacks show Merit and Zoe discussing life after the military. Zoe plans to re-enlist, as she doesn’t think there is anything for her back in society, while Merit tries to assure her that there is something to look forward to. They run into Lewis and SGT Gonzales (John-Peter Cruz), who inform them that they may have spotted a sniper nearby. Zoe makes some snide comments to them, which appears to upset Gonzales.

Merit goes to Shady Acres, the retirement home that Kris was looking into, to check out a room for Dale. There, she finds that Alex is the manager of the place. After checking out a room, Alex invites Merit to go out for drinks that night, which she accepts. During the date, the two get along well enough until Alex asks about Merit’s time in the army. Since she still sees Zoe there (she follows Merit everywhere), Merit starts to get triggered again and ends up leaving Alex at the bar. He later calls her, and she apologizes for leaving abruptly.

Merit starts to skip on the group sessions due to her spending time with Dale. As a way to bond with him, she gets Dale to go out on his boat, which he hadn’t touched since his wife passed. On the water, they discuss Merit’s PTSD, but Dale claims that the vets in his time did not have that same experience with trauma.

Merit and Dale later attend a Fourth of July event for veterans at the park. Everything seems to be going well until Alex shows up to say hi to Merit. He accidentally lets it slip that he manages the retirement home, and Dale is able to put two and two together. He calls Merit a traitor and ditches her. Merit runs through the park as it gets dark, but when she goes back to the lake house, she finds Kris there, who says that Dale is already back home. She is upset with Merit for not telling her about things like that Dale injured himself while Merit has been staying with him, and Kris is ready to go ahead with putting Dale at Shady Acres.

Merit goes on another run through the cemetery, where she is confronted by the vision of Zoe again. This leads to another flashback of Merit and Zoe in Afghanistan, guarding the gates at night. Zoe still feels hopeless about life after the army, and she and Merit get into an argument. Zoe tries to step outside the gate to alert the enemy and potentially get shot, but Merit talks her down and pulls her back, once again assuring her that she can still have a life after leaving. We then see Zoe working a dead-end job and living alone after returning home, with nobody but Merit to talk to. Merit ignored Zoe’s phone call on the day of Zoe’s birthday, and Zoe later committed suicide by gunshot. Merit has since blamed herself for talking Zoe out of re-enlisting and ignoring her call, feeling that she would still be alive if it wasn’t for her. Merit plans to talk about Zoe’s death, but Zoe says that she would never forgive her. Merit says that the real Zoe would.

Merit returns to Shady Acres and stops Kris from signing the paperwork. She then talks to Alex and reconciles with him before going back home with Kris. Merit then proposes that she move in with Dale so that she can help him with whatever he needs. He and Kris appear to agree to it. Merit then tells them she needs to leave.

Merit drives back to the group therapy session, to Dr. Cole’s surprise. She finally starts to tell Zoe’s story.

The film is inspired by and dedicated to director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’s two friends who were veterans that died by suicide. Clips of the two men are shown, along with text stating that, since 9/11, over 127,000 veterans have been victims of suicide, 18 times more likely to die that way than in Iraq or Afghanistan. Since 2019, the number has decreased since more resources have become available to veterans. A message from Hausmann-Stokes and the cast is shown to bring attention to several programs and organizations dedicated to providing for veterans.