An ordinary working class boy, like all his peers, he played football day and night and dreamed of being a striker. But no matter which team he played for - in the yard, at the factory, or in the army - he was inevitably put in goal.

A young partisan Viktor Tretyakov and his school friends decide to organize a resistance group to the fascists. They call it the "Young Guard" and attract familiar boys and girls to it. After a while, the Young Guards are joined by scouts sent to the city to collect information — Lyubov Shevtsova and the Artist. For a long time, the "Young Guard" manages to successfully commit sabotage, but they are opposed by an experienced and insidious enemy, who, in the end, manages to expose the Young Guards.