The Medal of Honor traces the history of America’s highest award for valor in combat through powerful stories of those who have received this honor and asks fundamental questions about what it means to have the courage of a hero. From the profile of Sgt. Paul Smith, the first soldier to receive a Medal of Honor in the Iraq War, back to its creation during the Civil War, the film explores the extraordinary, almost inconceivable acts of heroism for which the medal has been awarded through intimate accounts of fear and the realities of surviving combat, movingly told by the living recipients themselves. What makes a person face almost certain death in order to save the lives of others? Can we all be heroes?