汉克(汤米·李·琼斯 Tommy Lee Jones 饰)在军队里负责研究核武器,他一门心思的扑在事业上,自然冷落了妻子卡丽(杰西卡·兰格 Jessica Lange 饰),夫妻两人之间的感情渐渐冷淡下来。 在一场实验事故中,两名实验人员受到了辐射,军方想要将这场事故给压下来,但是道德和良心让汉克无法苟同军方的做法,为此,他甚至和自己的上司文斯(鲍沃斯·布斯 Powers Boothe 饰)之间爆发了巨大的矛盾。实际上,文斯和卡丽有着一段地下情,而这场争吵成为了文斯除掉汉克的大好机会。汉克被送入了精神病院,直到这时,卡丽才发现事情的发展早已经脱离了她的设想,她决定救出汉克。It's the early 1960s. Nuclear engineer Hank Marshall is a major in the US Army, he who works on top secret nuclear testing projects. Trouble follows him from posting to posting largely because of his mentally unstable wife, Carly Marshall, who is bipolar. During her manic phases, her already overt sexuality, which she models after such sex symbols as Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, is ratcheted up a notch, that partying behavior which is mixed with less frequent phases of physically destructive behavior. Regardless, Hank and Carly love each other, Hank who would admit to himself that he enjoys the fact that other men find Carly attractive, which is partly why he allows her to act the way she does in public. They, in turn, mutually love their now two teenaged daughters, Alex and Becky. Reassigned from their two year posting in Hawaii largely due to the ruckus Carly has caused there, they are next sent to Alabama, the base under the command of Vince Johnson, his wife, Vera Johnson, who heads the wives' welcoming committee. Alex, at an age of starting to test her own sexuality, starts to date the Johnsons' son, Glenn. Due to no fault of his own, Hank faces some problems in the latest project on which he is working, code named Blue Sky. And Carly continues her regular behavior, which catches Vince's overtly wandering eye. These items in combination lead to the potential of the Marshalls' home life being pulled apart and Hank's career destroyed, both irreparably.