The year 2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United States' deployment of combat troops to Vietnam. NBS, a network television channel, airs the longest-running news program in television history, The Hour. Seeking a different angle from the countless Vietnam stories told over the past five decades, The Hour sets out to find a highly decorated veteran - one who endured the most intensive training, spent the longest time in combat, and is still alive to tell the story. Lisa Oletta, a television journalist, leads the search. Her pursuit centers on Sergeant First Class Ettore "Ray" Vigliotti, a Green Beret who spent seven uninterrupted years in combat - an extraordinary and nearly unparalleled record that makes him uniquely suited for the story.

For Lisa, the assignment reaches deeply into her own past. She struggles with whether to involve her mother, Angela, in persuading Vigliotti to revisit his experiences. Angela, also a journalist, began her career as a young reporter in Vietnam. Her first husband - a Green Beret who served in the same unit as Vigliotti -was killed in combat. Vigliotti's long-standing refusal to grant interviews only heightens Lisa's concern, yet Angela may be the key; she and Ray share a complicated history.

Lisa's reluctance to ask her recently widowed mother to confront a painful past is at odds with her professional ambition. With her family drawn into the effort, she must ultimately find Vigliotti and convince him to finally tell his story.