“The Forever War” is told from the point of view of William Mandella, one of the recruits that goes into training for space military conflicts because Earth and humanity is threatened by an alien species called the Taurans. The recruits go through brutal and live-threatening trainings to be prepared for the battle. To battle the Taurans a group of the selected recruits travels to a seemingly inhabited planet they believe was occupied by the Taurans. After the battle, and witnessing the Taurans not fighting back, but rather just trying to escape, leaves a bad taste in William’s mouth.
After some time, William decides that he just wants to go back to Earth, and uses his military leave to try to return to his life there. He is struck by the change on Earth-more than twenty years passed since he left, but during his time in space only a couple did. The year is 2007 and things on Earth are rough due to overpopulation and food scarcity. William gets in contact with his mother, but decides to seek out his colleague and love Marygay Potter, who also went back to Earth. In a tragic turn of events, both of their parents die and the two decide to leave Earth, and are involuntarily taken back to fight against the aliens.
More time passes, a couple of centuries in Earth’s time, and William and Marygay are taken to a planet called Heaven to recuperate from a heavy battle. They also get separated there without much hope of ever seeing each other again. William is given a position of a lieutenant to lead a group of recruits to a distant planet to serve as a target for Taurans.
The climactic battle takes place, and he barely makes it out alive with a few others. They get rescued by a human species who call themselves Man, and they reveal to them that the ongoing war is over. They also reveal that the Taurans never actually harmed humans at first, but it was a corruption scheme to create financial gain from warfare. William learns that Marygay is on a planet called Middle Finger and sets on the route with the remainder of his crew to find her.
