It's November 1967 and nurse Colleen McMurphy faces the last week of her tour of duty in Vietnam, dealing as usual with the dying boys, primitive conditions, and the sexual pressure from pilot Natch Austin. USO singers Georgia Lee and Laurette Barber arrive to entertain the troops in the base's new R&R center. Brand new Red Cross volunteer Cherry White also arrives, determined to find her brother, a marine no one can locate.

McMurphy decides that she can't leave China Beach even though she is eligible to go home. Cherry and Laurette arrive- Cherry to look for her brother whom her family lost contact with and Laurette as a USO back up singer who gets promoted to lead when the lead singer can't cope with the war.

Laurette auditions local entertainers to fill in the act and McMurphy struggles to overcome her feelings when a Viet Cong woman who was responsible for blowing up a friend is brought into the hospital for treatment.

Despite distractions, McMurphy and Natch finally get together. Laurette gets a chance to join another, bigger USO tour. McMurphy gets blamed for a body that disappears on her shift.

Lila takes over command of China Beach and orders KC off the base. McMurphy finally lets herself admit how much she cares for Natch when she receives some disturbing news about him. Wayloo Marie Holmes, former Saigon weather girl, arrives at China Beach to handle her first journalism assignment, extolling the recreational facilities at the base.

Wayloo Marie becomes a casualty as she shoots her assignment. Frankie Bunsen arrives for temporary duty. McMurphy finds a badly injured Dodger.