Plot
A West Virginian mother waits daily for news from her two sons serving overseas. Meanwhile, childhood friends Lena and Abram face the difficulty of their budding romance (Lena is black, and Abram is Jewish) in 1940s Philadelphia as Abram prepares to deploy, after promising Lena's mother that when he returns from the war, he will come to her house and court Lena properly. When Abram is killed in action after becoming a fighter pilot, the heartbroken Lena vows to enlist upon graduation.
On the train to Georgia for basic training, Lena meets other enlistees, who will become her friends. Captain Charity Adams and Lieutenant Noel Campbell train them. Despite being well-trained, the battalion is not shipped out.
One day, the West Virginian mother convinces Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House that, across the country, no one is receiving mail from. their relatives fighting the war. President Roosevelt meets with two high-ranking officers, Mrs. Roosevelt, and Mary MacLeod Bethune to discuss it.
The general explains that delivery of supplies has been prioritized over mail. As a consequence, millions of letters and packages have piled up in hangars in Britain. Clearing the backlog has become a logistical nightmare that several units have been unable to resolve, including a white WAC unit. Bethune maintains, however, that the black Women's Army Corps unit can do it, so Captain Adams' unit is finally given orders.
The battalion crosses the stormy North Atlantic in the ocean liner Île de France without naval escort. [5] When they arrive in Glasgow, they face the racist commanding officer General Halt. He forces them to march through the city immediately upon landing to the disused, rat-infested, unheated boarding school which is to become their base. The newly-promoted Major Adams and Captain Campbell are given six months to turn the school into a post office and barracks, and to clear a two-year backlog of undelivered mail. The deadline is intended to ensure their failure.
Once the battalion has toiled to create liveable quarters, a pristine mess hall, and a well-organized mail sorting hall, the work can begin. One day, Lena loses her composure upon seeing nonchalant handling of dog tags found in damaged letters. She breaks down to her friends and reveals her connection to Abram and how she never received any letters from him, which makes her know first-hand how important their job is. Her friends promise to watch for any letter addressed to her; and Major Adams tells Lena that her story has also made her realize the importance of their work.
Along with a notification that their first two months of sorted mail was undeliverable, the battalion is asked to host black soldiers at a dance to boost morale. Lena sees Hugh there, whom she had met previously at the 6888th's training base in Georgia. They start to dance, but she soon leaves upon hearing a song she associates with Abram. They decide to be friends.
When it is discovered by white officers that an occasional letter is opened, the battalion's members point out various difficulties and challenges they face. These include multiple cases of identical names; multiple locator cards for soldiers as their units move; rats damaging the contents of packages and their addresses; and mold from care packages from home destroying addresses.
After President Roosevelt's death, a white chaplain assigned as a spy by General Halt delivers a sermon that denigrates Adams' qualifications and morals. After finding his extremely negative report on her, she literally sends him packing.
The same day that a letter from Abram to Lena is found, two women of the 6888th die from an unexploded bomb en route to the school. After their burial at Brookwood Cemetery, Lena visits Abram's grave, where she reads his letter. In it, he tells her to live a long life and she finally gets closure.
Lieutenant General Halt (who, according to his fruit salad has been in the Army since the Spanish-American War and served in the Philippine Campaign, on the Mexican Border during the Pancho Villa Revolution, in World War I, and in the Army before America's entry into World War II, apparently without being decorated for military merit or combat valor) visits the battalion and criticizes it harshly. As the WACs work around the clock, the night shift is sleeping when he arrives. Halt is not allowed in the showers in case someone is showering. After he inspects the mail sorting area, he declares Major Adams incompetent and says that he will replace her with a white male. Adams responds, "Over my dead body," and elaborates eloquently in Halt's face to make it clear that she will not step down. The soldiers who heard the exchange remain standing at attention until she comes down to get them to start work again, whereupon they give her a rousing ovation.
As General Halt is trying to push Major Adams' court martial through, he hears cheers from his unit as their mail finally arrives. The 6888th successfully straightened out the two-year backlog of 17 million pieces of mail in just 90 days, despite the challenges of the mission. They were later sent to Rouen, France, to clear a similar backlog. After the war, Lena married Hugh, living a long life with him.
The women of the 6888th were not especially appreciated when they returned to US soil. Decades later, Michelle Obama oversees a ceremony honoring the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. Also, US Army Base Fort Lee was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams, partially in Adams' honor.
