It's nighttime in America - the draft has been reinstated. The country's conflicting attitudes toward war are examined through the eyes of Aaron (Elijah Wood), George (Chris Klein), and Dixon (Jon Bernthal) as each prepares to report for duty and learns, individually, what it means to "serve with honor."
The setting of the film is a future America in which the draft has been reinstated to fight the war on terror. The protagonists are three friends who have been given induction notices and have 30 days to report for duty. Feeling unprepared but convinced that he must serve, novelist Aaron (Elijah Wood) embarks on a quest to prepare for the life of a soldier - enlisting the help of a collapsing Bowflex machine and a disengaged therapist (Ally Sheedy). Corporate attorney George (Chris Klein) wishes to stay with his wife (Ginnifer Goodwin), a recent cancer survivor, rather than fight in a war that he believes is wrong, but avoiding service does not prove easy. Cabdriver Dixon (Jon Bernthal) is the most fearless and free of doubt, but he falls in love with a sociology student (Elisabeth Moss), and suddenly issues that always seemed black-and-white to him are not so simple. As reporting day, or day zero, draws nearer, the three friends fight, fall out, come together and comfort each other as each in his own way discovers what it means to "serve with honor."
