Chartreuse "Charlie" Pippin just can't seem to keep out of trouble. At school, she finds herself at odds with the principal when her entrepreneurial skills lead her to break the rules. At home, her father Oscar, a Vietnam veteran, is outraged by her refusal to play it safe like her sister, Sienna, and always do as she is told. But it is when Charlie's restless curiosity leads her to try and learn more about the Vietnam War that the sparks between Charlie and Oscar really begin to fly. Caught between her father's bitterness about his past and her own unflagging need to understand, Charlie wonders for the first time in her life if she is fighting a battle that no one can win.