The Best Years of Our Lives - Plot

Plot

After World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) meet while flying home to Boone City (a fictional city patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.). Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in Europe who still suffers from nightmares of combat. Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division in the Pacific.

Before the war, Al was a bank loan officer. He is a mature man with a comfortable home and a loving family: wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright), and college freshman son Rob. Al has trouble readjusting to civilian life, as do his two new acquaintances, and is showing signs of alcoholism. Shortly after returning home, Al is persuaded to return to the bank (with a promotion and raise). The bank president views Al's military experience as valuable in dealing with other vets who are returning to civilian life, and may seek loans from the bank. Al soon realizes the narrow tightrope that he's walking, when he approves a loan (without collateral) to a young Navy vet who wishes to purchase land for a farm, and is soon forced to explain to the bank president why he made the approval. Later, at a banquet held by the bank officers in his honor, a slightly inebriated Al manages to eloquently articulate, with some rambling, his belief that the bank (and America) must stand with the vets who risked everything to defend the country, and give them every chance possible to rebuild their lives back home.

Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk. He wants something better, but the tight postwar job market forces him to reluctantly return to his old job. Fred had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in flight training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. Marie became a nightclub waitress while Fred was overseas. Marie seems to have been largely enamored of Fred when he was an aviator, and now does not enjoy being married to a soda jerk.

Homer was a football quarterback and became engaged to Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) before joining the Navy. Both Homer and his parents now have trouble dealing with his disability. He does not want to burden Wilma with his handicap and so pushes her away, although she adjusts best to his changed life, and still wants to marry him.

Peggy meets Fred while bringing her father home from a bar where the three men meet once again. They are attracted to each other, and Peggy dislikes Marie, finding her shallow. Peggy tells her parents she intends to end Fred and Marie's marriage, but they tell her that their own marriage overcame similar problems. In order to protect Peggy, Al demands that Fred to stop seeing his daughter. Fred agrees, but the friendship between the two men becomes strained.

At Fred's drugstore an obnoxious customer, who says that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into a fight with Homer. Fred intervenes to protect his friend, and knocks the man into a glass counter. Having lost his job, Fred and Homer leave the drugstore. Later, Fred encourages Homer to put his misgivings behind and marry Wilma, offering to be his best man if he needs one. Arriving home, Fred discovers his wife with another veteran (Steve Cochran). Marie confronts Fred and tells him that she thinks he is a flop and that she is getting a divorce.

Fred decides to leave town, and gives his father his medals and citations, saying that they were "passed out with the K-rations." His father tries to persuade Fred to stay and start a new life on his home turf. After Fred leaves, his father is nearly brought to tears when reading the citation for Fred's Distinguished Flying Cross, and learns for the first time what a hero his son truly had been. At the airport, Fred books space on the first outbound aircraft, without regard for the destination. While waiting, he wanders into a vast aircraft boneyard. Inside the nose of a B-17, he begins to relive and purge himself of the intense memories of combat. The boss of a work crew interrupts him. When the crew chief says the aluminum from the aircraft is being salvaged to build housing, Fred persuades the boss to hire him.

At home, one evening, Wilma visits Homer and tells him that her parents want her to leave Boone City for an extended period, to try and forget him. Torn between wanting her to stay, but not wishing to be a burden to her were she to live with him in his condition, Homer bluntly demonstrates to Wilma how hard life with him would be. When Wilma makes it clear that she loves him anyway, Homer gives in and agrees to marry her.

The story concludes on the day of Homer and Wilma's wedding, in the Parrish home. True to his word, the now-divorced Fred is Homer's best man at the wedding. Al and Fred meet for the first time after their confrontation in Butch's over his relationship with Peggy; and despite Al's friendly overtures, Fred remains cool. During the ceremony, Fred and Peggy watch each other tentatively from across the room. After the ceremony, Fred becomes convinced that he has to put the past behind him and build a new life. He approaches Peggy and holds her, telling her that it might be years before their lives become comfortable. She smiles, and they kiss and embrace.