When career soldier Pete Griffin loses a leg in combat, he is sent back to America to serve at the army base near his disconnected family's home. To make matters worse, Pete's nurse wife Patty has been deployed to Afghanistan, leaving him to raise daredevil son Chris (17) and moody adolescent daughter Becky (15). Helping Pete overcome the obstacles of single fatherhood are the neighborhood army wives: Sue Meyers, an older grounded woman, Emma Mountcastle, a sassy pregnant intellectual, Roberta Sommer, an overweight airhead, and Missy Wentworth, a teenage bride and older sister figure to Becky. Although initially reluctant to leave the combat zone he had become so accustomed to living in, Pete embraces his role as the stay-at-home dad and finally connects with his clever and courageous children.