Medical personnel more accustomed to treating patients than handling weapons prepare to head to Iraq. The 21st CSH (“cash”), or Combat Support Hospital, sets up a full-service mobile hospital at an airbase in Balad, northwest of Baghdad.  The first patients, both American and Iraqi soldiers, are treated for battle wounds. With their own health-care system in disarray, Iraqis turn to the U.S. military for help.

Doctors dedicated to healing the sick must turn away some Iraqi patients. As her mother looks on, doctors of the 10th CSH struggle to save an injured and badly malnourished eight-year-old girl.