The Sloans, Mike Sr. and Ruth (Ken Jenkins and Mimi Kennedy), own a steel manufacturing factory initially responsible for making tank parts in the war.
They are coming to grips with the death of their only son, Mike Jr., a soldier, and the arrival of his Italian war bride, Gina (Giuliana Santini), a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
The Metcalfs include widow Anne (Wendy Phillips) and her three children, Hank (David Newsom), Linda (Jessica Steen) and Jeff (Kyle Chandler).
Meanwhile, Linda's friend, Ginger Szabo (Tammy Lauren) is shocked when her boyfriend Charlie Hailey (Harry O'Reilly) returns from the war with a British war-bride, Caroline (Sammi Davis).
Later cast members include Al Kahn (John Slattery), a Jewish union organiser and possible former Communist sympathiser who seduces Anne, and Judy Owens (Kelly Rutherford), a widow working as a bartender who has an affair with Mike Sr.