Private Benjamin

Twenty-eight year old Judy Benjamin, a stereotypical Jewish princess from Philadelphia, has the skills only for one thing in life, namely being married to a professional man which will allow them to hire a maid while she attends to serving her husband. As such, Judy has never been alone, always having had a boy/man in her life to do things for her. That life is more important than the choice of the husband in a romantic sense. People that know Judy, including her parents, have that similar view of and for her. All Judy's dreams come true with what will be her second marriage, this time to lawyer Yale Goodman. That dream bubble quickly pops when Yale dies of a heart attack on their wedding night. At a total loss of what to do with no man in her life, Judy is sold on the idea by a recruiter, Sgt. Jim Ballard, to join the army, Ballard marketing army life as something akin to a country club. Judy quickly finds that the six week basic training is nothing as Ballard mentioned, including that she cannot just quit because she doesn't like it. She is ill-equipped to basic training, which is made all the more difficult with the antagonism some of her fellow recruits have toward her. But what's probably worst is the mutual hatred between her and her squad leader, Captain Doreen Lewis, who wants to make Judy's life as miserable as possible just because of who she is. What skills Judy is able to pick up while in the army may not prepare her for everything army and life may throw at her, but those skills may prepare her for those things she finds important for herself, including in a relationship with French doctor Henri Tremont, the first man she may truly believe is the entire package as a husband.