In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his father, Slag, is actually a thief and a derelict. Slag robs a factory in order to get the money to send Tad to military school, then gets a job at the academy's horse stables to be close to his son, who doesn't know he's alive.

Tale of a young bugler whose stepmother attempts to supplant the mother who only lives in his memory.

A teenaged shoeshine boy urgently tries to raise the remaining amount of money he needs to purchase a secondhand bugle before 6p.m.