Host Bruce Feiler embeds with a group of active duty and retired US military, wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq and other American wars, as they travel to the Catholic shrine of Lourdes in Southwest France in search of healing.  More than five million pilgrims from around the world visit this shrine to the Virgin Mary every year to drink and bathe in the waters of a spring that Catholics believe has miraculous powers. The waters of the spring were uncovered by a young peasant girl named Bernadette during her vision of the Virgin Mary in 1858.

Some of the wounded warriors come to Lourdes as skeptics, and some with faith or at least an open mind.  Whether sharing their stories of war and recovery or finding healing in the camaraderie of fellow warriors, the weeklong pilgrimage allows the veterans to open up to others in a place whose primary focus is to ease suffering.