When She Came Home

Frankie Byrne has returned from the war in Iraq to a war in her San Diego home. Her daughter, Glory, is having problems with bullies at school and Frankie and her husband, Rick, can’t agree on the best way to deal with it. In fact Glory is just one of many things Frankie and Rick can’t agree on any more. It seems like everything Frankie does – from buying groceries to socializing with friends – is wrong. Her father, Brigadier General Harlan Byrne, USMC retired, thinks that Frankie’s problems are her own fault. A woman, especially a mother, should not go off to war.

But Frankie’s problem is not that she wasn’t prepared to be a soldier. It’s that she can’t stop being one. Her time in Iraq – specifically a controversial moment the government doesn’t want to acknowledge -has left her with severe PTSD. She can’t forget the horrors she saw and can’t forgive herself for not being able to do more.

Back home in San Diego, Frankie struggles to get back to normal. Her friend and fellow vet is also going through a hard time and Frankie isn’t sure how to help. And though she desperately she wants to regain the closeness her family once shared, she no longer knows how to be a wife or a mother. Her PTSD leaves her feeling weak – something difficult for any Marine, much less one with a disapproving father she’s spent a lifetime trying to please.

When Frankie is pressured to testify about what she saw in Iraq, her fragile nerves are stretched even thinner. Frankie knows the time has come to be honest about her PTSD and find a way to heal. It’s a battle that won’t be easy but one she must face in order to save her daughter, her marriage and herself.